,,FE  AND  LABORS 


PITMAN 


B.  0  RAKEk 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


7    L 


X  /  f    / 


.  0.  BAKEK 
LAWYER 
,  TEXAS 


Sir  Isaac  Pitman  I 


His  Life  and  Labors 


Illustrated 
Benn  Pitman 


COPYRIGHT,  1902, 

KY 
BKNN  PITMAN. 


CONTENTS. 


Chap.  i.  Sir  Isaac  Pitman;  His  Life  and  Labors Page       5 

"       2.  Isaac  Pitman's  Youthful  Days "  n 

"       3.  The  Father  and  Mother  of  the  Pitman  Family  .    .  "  19 

"       4.  Melissa,  the  First-born "  29 

"       5.  The  Start  in  Life  as  Schoolmaster  .......  "  35  - 

"       6.  Correction  of  the  Comprehensive  Bible "  41 

7.  First  Glimpses  of  the  New  and  True "  45 

"       8.  As  Inventor "  53  .y 

"       9.  Phonographic  Evolution "  63 

£j        "     10.  Earl)' Promulgation  of  Phonography  in  England  .  "  75 

*o 

^        "     ii.  Isaac  Pitman's  Physical  and  Mental  Traits  ...  "  87  v 

"     12.  Happy   is   the  Man   Whose   Joy   in  Life  is  His 

Daily  Work "  95 

"     13.  Spending  vs.  Wrecking  Life  on  a  Thought .  ...  "  101 

"     14.  The  Unsophisticated "  105 

tftt 

?*•       "     15.  Marriage  vs.  A  Mission "  117 

"     16.  Altruistic  Labors  ....'.. :    .    .  "  123  j 

~>        "17.  Phonographic  Jubilee "  129 

"      1 8.  His  Copyright "  139   y' 

ui        "     19.  Dr.  Alexander  John  Ellis "  143 

"     20.  Alphabetic  Reform "  155   / 

"     21.  Unsettled  Points  in  Pronunciation "  167 

"     22.  The  Inventor's  "Povert)-" "  175 

•» 

"     23.  Bell's  Visible  Speech .  ... "  181 

"     24.  Decimal  vs.  Duodecimal  Systems "  187    •> 

"     25.  His  Last  Attempt  at  Improvement "  191 


448548 


IN  my  observation  of  men  in  different  conditions  of  life,  I  have 
not  known  another  whose  unremitting,  long-continued  and 
unselfish  labors  in  furtherance  of  any  educational,  scientific, 
religious  or  social  project,  would  parallel  those  of  my  brother 
Isaac  Pitman.  I  have  never  known  another  who  devoted  the 
physical  and  mental  energies  of  more  than  sixty  years  of  life  to 
the  development  of  one  idea.  Such  devotion,  in  a  limited  field  of 
thought,  might  seem  more  deserving  of  censure  than  praise.  But 
when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  it  has  taken  more  than  six  thousand 
years  to  give  the  world  so  useful,  yet  so  imperfect,  a  scheme 
of  alphabetic  representation  as  the  present  script  and  typic  Roman 
alphabets,  and  that  the  aim  of  Isaac  Pitman  was  to  correct  and 
complete,  in  stenographic  writing,  longhand  script,  and  printing, 
this  great  instrument  of  civilization,  it  may  be  conceded,  what  is 
self-evident  to  every  phonetician  and  intelligent  phonographer, 
that  the  development  and  practical  application  of  the  phonetic 
principle  to  the  arts  of  writing  and  printing  could  only  have 
attained  their  present  comparative  excellence  and  wide-spread 

5 


6  S/Jt  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AXD  LABORS. 

acceptance  in  so  brief  a  period  by  the  entire  devotion  of  one 
earnest  mind,  and  the  collaboration  of  tens  of  thousands  of 
enthusiastic  helpers.  The  project  to  which  Isaac  Pitman's  life 
was  devoted  was  so  far-reaching  in  its  aims  and  use,  was  one  in- 
volving the  discussion  of  so  many  thousand  questions  of  detail, 
in  which  mind,  eye,  hand  and  habit  were  all  concerned,  and  upon 
which  every  intelligent  person  might  have  a  distinct  opinion  ; 
was  one  in  which  so  many  subtle,  technical  difficulties  were  in- 
volved— of  which  only  experts,  after  years  of  study,  would  be 
qualified  to  give  an  unprejudiced  judgment, — that  it  cannot  be 
regarded  other  than  singularly  fortunate  that  one  so  fitted  by 
study  and  habit  should  be  found  willing  and  able  to  give  his  life 
to  the  solution  of  the  problem. 

That  Isaac  Pitman  and  his  thousands  of  adherents,  in  the  old 
and  new  world,  have  accomplished  so  much  in  the  extension  and 
use  of  a  philosophic  system  of  writing,  is  due  to  the  admitted 
usefulness  of  the  art,  and  to  the  intelligence  and  enthusiasm  with 
which  its  admirers  have  labored.  That  they  have,  collectively, 
accomplished  so  little  in  inducing  the  English-speaking  race  to 
accept  a  more  reasonable  and  philosophic  script  and  typic  repre- 
sentation of  the  language,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  a  new  scheme 
antagonizes  the  settled  thought  and  habits  of  people,  and  to  the 
equally  important  fact  that  the  reform  deals  with  the  representa- 
tion of  human  speech,  which  is,  by  each  individual,  necessarily 
regarded  from  a  different  standpoint;  while  the  practical  repre- 
sentation of  this  varying  speech  will  be  received  with  varying  de- 
grees of  respect  and  acceptation  by  each  of  the  different  organisms 
to  which  it  appeals.  What  is  more  difficult  of  scientific  analysis 
than  human  speech?  What  could  be  more  evasive  than  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  nature,  and  the  classification  and  nomenclature 
of  the  labial,  dental  and  guttural  explodents,  checks,  hisses,  buzz- 
es, hums  and  trills  that,  with  vowels  as  connecting  links,  make 
our  rapidly-moving  vocal  organism  the  means  of  expressing 
thought  and  feeling?  And  greatly  is  the  difficulty  increased 
when  the  attempt  is  made  to  picture  to  the  eye  each  of  these 
debatable  sounds,  in  stenographic,  in  ordinary  script,  and  in  typic 
form,  by  the  best  available  signs.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,' 
though  it  is  to  be  regretted,  that  what  Isaac  Pitman  esteemed  the 
more  important  part  of  his  life's  labor,  should  have  passed  into 
history  as  "a  failure."  Justin  McCarty,  in  his  "History  of  Our 


INTRODUCTORY.  7 

Own  Times,"  says,  "On  January  22,  1897,  there  died  a  man  who 
had  occupied  his  whole  quiet,  noble  life  with  two  theories,  one  of 
which  was  a  complete  success,  and  the  other,  up  to  this  time,  an 
absolute  failure.  All  his  life  long  he  worked  at  the  realization 
of  his  two  theories,  in  the  full  belief  that  he  was  thereby  doing 
some  good  for  the  human  race.  He  remained  faithful  to  his  pur- 
pose through  his  life.  His  aim  was  to  lighten  the  load  of  the 
heavily  laden.  Sir  Isaac  Pitman's  system  of  Shorthand  was  a 
complete  success.  His  principle  of  phonetic  spelling  has  not  ad- 
vanced  one  single  step  since  he  first  tried  to  set  it  in  movement." 

Our  historian,  who  is  a  member  of  the  British  Parliament,  is 
probably  more  familiar  with  matters  of  state  than  with  educa- 
tional history.  Great  reforms,  especially  those  involving  some 
radical  change  in  the  habits  of  a  people,  are  necessarily  of  slow, 
almost  imperceptible  growth.  But  shall  we  claim  that  Christian- 
ity is  a  failure,  because,  up  to  this  time,  greed  and  selfishness, 
rather  than  the  love  of  the  neighbor,  is  too  often  the  rule  of  civil- 
ized life?  It  is  an  oversight  to  speak  of  the  Phonetic  reform  for 
which  Isaac  Pitman  labored  as  embracing  "two  theories."  Pho- 
netic truth  is  one,  whether  applied  to  a  stenographic,  a  common 
script,  or  a  typic  representation  of  the  language.  A  theory  that 
has,  during  the  past  half  centun%  won  over  an  army  of  advocates, 
that  has  been  accepted  and  tested,  in  a  thousand  instances,  in 
private  life  and  in  public  schools,  and  shown  to  be  the  easiest  and 
speediest  means  of  reading  English,  both  in  Phonetic  and 
Romanic  type ;  that  has  been  pleaded  for  by  statesmen,  philolo- 
gists, philanthropists  and  educators,  individually  and  in  public 
conventions ;  a  theory  that  has  entered  into  and  modified  ever}' 
English  and  American  primary  reading  and  spelling  book,  and 
that  has  been  accepted  and  used,  with  varying  modifications,  in 
every  important  English  dictionary  published  of  late  years,  can- 
not, in  fairness,  be  called  an  entire  failure. 

But  the  prime  factor  on  which  success  or  failure  is  to  be 
predicated,  is  not  so  much  the  acceptance,  as  the  relative  com- 
pleteness of  the  scheme,  which  Isaac  Pitman  formulated  to 
achieve  a  Writing  and  Printing  Reform.  And  no  verdict  on  this 
question  can  be  just  that  does  not  take  into  account  the  five  dis- 
tinct phases  of  intellectual  and  practical  work  on  which  my 
brother's  life  was  spent.  They  were,  (i)  the  attainment  of  a  cor- 
rect  analysis  of  English  Speech ;  (2)  the  invention  of  a  brief, 


8  SJK  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

philosophic  and  practical  Shorthand  ;  (3)  providing  a  convenient 
and  facile  phonetic  Script  Alphabet;  (4)  providing  a  full  and 
complete  Phonotypic  Alphabet ;  (5)  the  attainment,  for  tempo- 
rary use,  of  an  acceptable  Amended  Spelling,  by  means  of  the 
present  Roman  types. 

The  success  of  the  first  and  second  phases  of  the  Phonetic 
Reform  is  not  questioned;  and  the  speedy  and  wide  success  of  a 
convenient  and  philosophic  Shorthand  is  probably  less  due  to  the 
completeness  of  the  scheme  than  to  the  general  want  that  was  felt 
by  the  intellectual  and  business  world  for  some  reliable,  brief  sys- 
tem which  would  relieve  the  writer  from  the  slow  and  tedious 
longhand  in  common  use.  The  success  or  failure  of  the  third  and 
fourth  phases  of  the  proposed  reform,  is  a  question  that  should  de- 
pend upon  the  completeness  and  efficiency  of  the  means  offered  to 
meet  the  ends  desired,  and  any  decision  here  is  valueless  that  does 
not  come  from  one  who  has  made  a  special  study  of  the  necessary 
requirements  and  difficulties  which  the  question  involves.  The 
fifth  phase  of  the  reform  is  the  problem  which  is  being  slowly 
worked  out  in  England,  but  with  somewhat  greater  earnestness 
in  this  country,  and  the  adoption  of  an  Amended  Spelling  will, 
in  time,  lead  to  the  acceptance  of  Isaac  Pitman's  dream,  a  full 
and  complete  phonetic  representation  of  the  language, — Stenog- 
raphic, Script,  and  Typic.  To  what  extent  this  has  been  attained, 
the  causes  of  its  acceptance  or  rejection,  the  modification  of  my 
brother's  belief  as  to  the  best  means  of  attaining  the  ultimate 
adoption  of  a  strictly  phonotypic  standard, — these  are  some  of  the 
incidents  told  in  these  pages.  Difficult  and  complex  was  the 
problem  which  Isaac  Pitman  accepted  as  his  life's  work,  and  a 
wise  decision  in  the  settlement  of  details  was  not  always  reached. 
It  may  seem  unbrotherly  to  say,  but  if  phonetic  history  is  to  be 
impartially  recorded,  it  must  be  set  down  that  Isaac  Pitman's  earn- 
est nature  led  him  to  hasty  conclusions  in  important  matters  of 
detail;  he  adopted  changes  and  imaginary  improvements,  both  in 
Phonography  and  Phonotypy,  when  patience,  study  and  further 
tests  would  have  shown  their  inexpediency  and  disadvantage;  and 
thus,  he  often  impeded  the  spread  of  the  arts  he  so  earnestly 
sought  to  establish,  and  the  time,  labor  and  argument  incidental 
to  many  of  his  changes  were  doubled  in  his  efforts  to  unmake 
them. 

Probably  no  man  that  ever  lived  could  be  safely  taken  by 


INTRODUCTORY.  9 

another  as  a  model;  certainly  not  Isaac  Pitman.  Yet  he  was  the 
most  transparent,  unsophisticated,  generous,  serious,  methodical, 
industrious  and  pure-minded  soul  I  ever  knew.  He  was  self-cen- 
tered, but  his  mental  vision  was  so  straightforward  that  it  was 
often  confined  to  a  very  narrow  angle.  No  one  was  ever  en- 
dowed with  that  supernatural  vision  which  enabled  him,  from  one 
standpoint,  to  look  quite  round  a  given  problem.  If  the  average 
man  of  intelligence  has  a  mental  as  well  as  a  physical  range  of 
vision  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  degrees,  my  brother's  men- 
tal angle  would  often  be  an  acute  one  of  about  one-half  of  this. 
Thus  early  is  this  judgment  hazarded,  in  a  loving  way,  to  make 
intelligible  some  passages  told  of  his  unique  career.  Isaac  Pitman's 
main  characteristic  was  his  persevering,  unswerving,  methodical 
industry.  Such  was  his  concentration  of  thought  and  energy  for 
his  special  mission  and  its  incidental  labors,-  that  everything  else 
in  life  was  willingly  sacrificed;  he  thus  accomplished  in  his  life's 
span  more  literary  work  than  any  other  man  I  know  of.  Jules 
Verne,  it  is  said,  boasts  having  written  as  many  books  as  he  had 
lived  years — more  than  seventy.  Isaac  Pitman  wrote,  compiled,^ 
or  made  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  books  and  booklets, 
ranging  all  the  way  from  Bibles,  Dictionaries,  and  yearly  volumes 
or  Phonographic  and  Phonetic  Journals,  to  Manuals,  Readers  an,d 
Primers.  My  brother  made  many  of  his  books  after  the  fashion 
of  the  work  of  the  old  monastic  scribes,  before  the  invention  of 
printing,  in  that  he  wrote — that  is,  lithographed — the  page  which 
was  to  meet  the  reader's  eye.  In  all  this  work  there  was  never  a 
thought  of  personal  merit,  possible  honor,  or  pecuniary  gain.  As 
he  was  his  own  publisher,  so  was  he  his  own  proof-reader,  and 
authors  who  see  only  "revised"  proofs  of  their  writing  and  in  the 
customary  characters,  know  little  of  the  perplexities  of  the  aver- 
age "first  proofs"  of  a  new  style,  and  would,  as  a  rule,  be  quite 
unequal  to  the  task  of  righting  their  varied  typic  wrongs.  My 
brother's  correspondence  was  immense :  the  discussion  of  theoret- 
ical points,  phonographic  and  phonetic  experiments,  letters  of 
encouragement  to  phonographers,  and  letters  accompanying  par- 
cels of  books,  tracts,  and  documents,  occupied,  it  is  safe  to  say, 
nearly  one-half  of  his  customary  sixteen  hours  of  daily  duty. 


ISAAC  PITMAN  was  the  third  of  eleven  children  born  to 
Samuel  and  Mariah  Pitman,  at  Trowbridge,  Wiltshire.     The 
family  consisted  of  seven  boys  and  four  girls.     The  sixth 
child,  Abraham,  who  gave  evidence  of  unusual  mechanical  and 
inventive  ingenuity,  died  at  the  age  of  fifteen ;  all  the  rest  lived 
to  arrive  at  maturity,  and  nine  of  the  ten, — Rosella,  alone,  remain- 
ing unmarried, — became  the  parents  of  families. 

Isaac  in  his  youth  was  of  a  diligent  and  studious  habit.  He 
was  of  a  sensitive  nature,  inclined  to  be  thoughtful,  regarding 
life  and  its  duties  as  matters  of  grave  concern.  He  was  impulsive 
only  in  rendering  services  to  others.  His  elder  brother,  Jacob,  in 
speaking  of  their  youthful  days,  said:  "Isaac  never  had  any 
of  that  rollicking  nonsense  about  him  peculiar  to  most  of  us  boys, 
nor  do  I  remember  his  ever  stopping  on  his  way  from  school  to 
play,  but  home  directly  he  went,  either  to  his  books  or  to  his 
work."  Isaac  received  his  early  training  in  the  grammar  school 
of  his  native  town,  and  left  when  he  had  just  passed  his  thir- 
teenth year,  having  acquired  only  the  elements  of  a  common,  but 
good,  English  education.  He  was  taken  from  school  mainly  in 
consequence  of  his  yielding,  during  school  hours,  to  fainting 
spells,  supposed  at  the  time  to  be  due  to  physical  weakness,  but 
which  were  occasioned,  most  likely,  by  the  poisoned  atmosphere 
of  a  too-crowded  school-room,  for  the  fainting  spells  ceased  on  his 
leaving  school.  From  seventy-five  to  eighty  boys  were  stowed 
away  in  a  room  none  too  large  for  a  dozen.  If,  as  is  said,  a 
healthy  person  vitiates  three  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  every 


12  67^  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

twenty-four  hours,  these  grammar  boys  were  being  poisoned 
most  of  the  time  they  spent  in  school.  The  play-ground  of  the 
school,  moreover,  was  the  church  graveyard,  crowded  with  head- 
stones and  imposing  "table"  monuments,  round  which  tears 
enough  had  once  been  shed,  but  which  now  were  play-houses, 
over  which  the  boys  chased  each  other  in  wildest  glee.  I  have  a 
vivid  recollection  of  the  old  grammar  school,  and  the  graveyard, 
which  lay  between  it  and  the  beautiful  Gothic  church.  The 
school-room  was  quaintly  arranged  with  gallery-like  desks,  reach- 
ed by  four  steps,  which  ran  down  the  longer  sides  of  the  room, 
leaving  the  center  free  for  recitation  classes  and  the  flogging  of 
the  boys.  The  room  was  also  used  for  the  church  Sunday-school, 
of  which  my  father  was,  on  alternate  Sundays,  superintendent, 
and  in  which  Isaac  and  his  brothers,  when  they  were  old  enough, 
were  Sunday-school  teachers.  At  the  age  of  seven  I  was  im- 
pressed into  service,  and,  perched  on  a  high  stool,  I  taught  boys 
who  were  about  twice  my  height  their  a-b-c's.  I  have  pleasant 
memories  of  this  grammar  school-room,  from  the  fact  that  on 
Sunday  mornings,  before  church  service,  our  venerable  rector, 
who  was  the  poet,  George  Crabbe,  usually  came  through  the 
school  on  his  way  to  the  church  vestry,  and  he  rarely  passed 
without  stopping  to  greet  me  with  a  few  friendly  words,  and  a 
gentle  pat  on  the  head,  in  recognition,  I  suppose,  of  my  youthful 
zeal  as  a  Sunday-school  teacher.  The  poet  died  in  1832.  I  fol- 
lowed him  to  his  grave  in  the  parish  church,  of  which,  for  many 
years,  he  had  been  the  rector,  and  in  which  each  one  of  our 
eleven,  one  after  the  other,  had  been  baptized,  and,  lying  in  the 
arms  of  the  poet,  had  received  his  benediction.  It  is  a  curious 
reminiscence  that  I  should  have  had  this  juvenile  acquaintance 
with  the  poet,  and  again  and  again  taken  the  hand  that  had, 
before  Byron  was  born  or  Walter  Scott  was  known,  penned  lam- 
poons on  Washington,  wrhile  he  was  engaged  in  the  struggle  for 
American  independence ! 

Isaac  Pitman,  at  an  early  age,  evinced  a  strong  love  for 
books  and  music.  His  first  instrument  was  the  flute,  on  which 
he  and  his  elder  brother  acquired  enough  proficiency  to  be  able 
to  lead  the  singing  of  the  children  at  the  Baptist  Sunday-school, 
of  which  my  father  was  the  founder.  It  is  an  evidence  of  father's 
activity  and  love  of  usefulness  that  he  should,  while  superintend- 
ent of  the  church  Sunday-school,  have  succeeded  in  establishing 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  YOUTHFUL  DAYS.  13 

a  Sunday-school  in  connection  with  Zion  Chapel,  the  Baptist, 
dissenting  place  of  worship,  which  my  mother  attended.  Of  this 
Sunday-school  my  father,  on  alternate  Sundays,  was  also  the 
superintendent.  The  four  elder  Pitman  boys,  I  being  the  young- 
est, were  teachers  on  alternate  Sundays,  in  both  the  church  and 
the  Baptist  Sunday-school.  Our  girls  were  teachers  only  in  the 
latter. 

Isaac,  as  a  youth,  though  of  modest  and  retiring  disposition, 
was  far  from  lacking  courage,  even  daring.  When  he  was  about 
sixteen  I  occasionally  accompanied  him  to  bathe,  with  one  or  two 
companions.  On  these  occasions  he  would  sometimes  dive  from 
a  bridge  which  was  at  least  ten  to  twelve  feet  above  the  water,  a 
feat  which  none  of  his  companions,  as  far  as  I  remember,  ever 
ventured  upon.  He  frequently  bathed,  and  always  before  break- 
fast, when  the  air  and  water  were  much  too  cold  for  others  to 
think  of  taking  a  dip.  I  recall  another  illustration  of  what  at  the 
time,  seemed  great  daring,  though  now  it  appears  to  have  been  a 
conclusion  drawn  from  my  own  ignorance.  It  occurred  when 
Isaac  was  about  twenty.  He  had  returned  from  the  Burrough 
Road  College,  London,  and  in  speaking  of  the  great  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  Burrough  Road  Society,  held  in  Exeter  Hall,  usually 
presided  over  by  some  nobleman,  he  said  he  would  not  hesitate 
to  read  the  annual  report  before  the  meeting,  consisting  of  three 
or  four  thousand  intelligent  people,  which  usually  assembled  on 
these  great  occasions.  This  seemed  to  me,  at  the  time,  about  as 
daring  as  offering  to  lead  an  army  to  besiege  a  city,  but  Isaac 
spoke  without  any  thought  of  boasting,  for  he  had  paid  special 
attention  to  precisely  those  matters  which,  mastered,  make  a  good 
reader, — namely,  correct  pronunciation,  distinct  articulation,  and 
other  essentials  of  effective  delivery. 

On  leaving  school  Isaac  was  installed  as  Clerk  in  the  count- 
ing-house of  the  large  cloth  manufactory  of  Mr.  James  Edgell,  of 
which  my  father  was  the  general  manager  for  twenty  years.  It 
was  a  quiet  boast  of  my  father  that  during  this  time  he  had  made 
a  large  fortune  for  his  master,  and  had  had  his  own  salary  raised 
eleven  times,  and  once  only  from  his  own  asking.  After  Isaac 
had  been  a  year  in  service  he  begged  piteously,  I  have  heard 
father  say,  to  be  allowed  to  go  back  to  school.  Father  did  not 
think  it  best  to  consent,  but  advised  his  boy  to  stick  to  his  desk 
and  devote  his  leisure  to  books  and  study.  Leisure  !  The  poor 


14  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

lad  went  to  work  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  as  father  did,  con- 
tinuing until  six  in  the  evening ;  yet  Isaac  found  time  for  system- 
atic study.  He  rose  at  four  o'clock,  and  he  and  his  brother  Jacob 
devoted  every  moment  to  their  books  and  study  till  they  left 
home  for  their  daily  duty ;  and  each  evening  gave  them  one  or 
two  additional  hours  for  study.  Father  always  took  the  greatest 
interest  in  the  intellectual  progress  of  his  children,  showing  a 
wise  discretion  in  giving  them  occupation  which  secured  progress, 
at  the  same  time  keeping  them  from  idleness  and  its  mischievous 
results.  At  two  periods  in  the  family  history  father  engaged  a 
lady  teacher  to  give  us  evening  instruction.  In  the  latter  period, 
in  which  alone  I  participated,  we  supplemented  our  day  school 
exercises  with  private  instruction  five  evenings  in  the  week.  In 
Isaac's  time  it  was  only  twice  a  week.  The  teacher  was  a  Miss 
Xew,  the  daughter  of  the  only  bookseller  in  the  place.  She  was 
a  lady  of  sweet  disposition  and  good  general  culture.  This  lady 
also  gave  to  the  four  elder  children  instruction  on  the  piano. 
The  instrument  on  which  they  practised  was  a  triangular  harpsi- 
chord ;  after  two  years  of  practise,  when  the  young  people  had 
acquired  some  skill  in  fingering,  it  gave  place  to  a  genuine  piano, 
a  Broadwood  of  five  and  a  half  octaves.  This  was  considered  a 
great  event,  and  the  enjoyment  which  Isaac  derived  from  the  use 
of  this  instrument  seems  to  have  led  him  to  regard  it  as  a  special 
gift  from  Heaven.  In  proof  of  his  gratitude,  he  saved  his  pocket 
money  till  it  amounted  to  five  shillings — a  large  sum  to  him — and 
then  having  procured  a  silver  crown,  a  coin  somewhat  larger  than 
the  American  dollar,  he  quietly  dropped  it  into  the  contribution 
box  of  Zion  Chapel,  a  thank-offering  which  Heaven,  if  so  pleased, 
might  accept  as  evidence  of  his  gratitude.  This  incident  was  un- 
known to  any  member  of  the  family  till  years  afterwards,  when 
Isaac  himself  told  it  in  one  of  his  merry  moods. 

From  thirteen  to  nineteen  Isaac  Pitman  was  a  self-instructed 
student.  The  bookseller  at  Trowbridge  had  a  lending  library,  said 
to  be  one  of  the  first  established  in  the  country ;  to  this  father 
subscribed,  and  Isaac  greedily  availed  himself  of  the  privilege  it 
afforded.  While  music  was  his  pleasure  and  enjoyment,  good 
literature  had  a  great  attraction  for  him,  and  Milton,  Addison, 
Pope,  Steele,  Johnson  and  Cowper  were  favorites,  whose  writings 
were  not  merely  read,  but  critically  studied,  and  considerable  por- 
tions of  them,  both  of  prose  and  poetry,  were  committed  to  mem- 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  YOUTHFUL  DAYS.  15 

ory.  During  his  clerking  days,  when  he  was  about  sixteen,  he  be- 
gan the  study  of  Taylor's  system  of  Shorthand,  a  cheap  edition  of 
which  was  published,  at  three  shillings  and  sixpence,  by  Harding, 
a  Birmingham  teacher  of  Shorthand.  Previous  to  this  the  lowest 
price  at  which  a  work  on  shorthand  was  published  was  half  a 
guinea — ten  shillings  and  sixpence.  Isaac  Pitman  made  use  of 
the  art  for  private  memoranda  and  for  making  extracts  from  works 
he  read — thus  preserving  the  extract  and  partly  memorizing  the 
matter,  till  in  two  years  he  could  write  about  eighty  words  a 
minute. 

It  was  at  this  early  period  of  his  life  that  Isaac  Pitman's  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  disparity  between  the  printed  and  spoken 
language.  In  reading  he  frequently  met  with  words,  the  mean- 
ing of  which  he  understood,  but  never  having  heard  them  in  con- 
versation, he  was  doubtful  as  to  their  correct  pronunciation,  and 
the  only  recourse  was  reference  to  the  pronouncing  dictionary. 
This  occurred  so  often  that  he  resolved  to  read  carefully  through 
Walker's  Pronouncing  Dictionary,  and  copy  out  every  word  whose 
pronunciation  or  spelling  was  unfamiliar  to  him.  When  the  task 
was  completed,  he  found  that  he  had  a  list  of  about  two  thousand 
words,  which  he  copied  with  the  proper  diacritical  markings,  and 
these  he  committed  to  memory,  both  as  to  pronunciation  and 
spelling.  Two  years  later,  when  he  was  a  school  teacher,  he  re- 
peated this  somewhat  notable  task.  He  made  a  patient  and  some- 
what thorough  study  of  grammar,  committing  to  memory  rules 
and  exceptions,  lists  of  regular  and  irregular  verbs,  and  the  man- 
ifold particulars  which  need  to  be  observed  before  language  can 
be  used  in  a  grammatical,  clear  and  definite  verbal  expression, 
and  thus  he  attained  a  style  of  writing  which,  through  life,  char- 
acterized all  that  Isaac  Pitman  wrote. 

Isaac,  in  my  youthful  days,  exercised  an  influence  over  the 
rest  of  the  family  that  no  other  of  my  brothers  or  sisters  did.  We 
played  no  pranks  on  him,  but  had  a  certain  respect  for  his  word, 
and  regard  for  his  authority,  not  unlike  that  we  felt  for  father's. 
I  distinctly  recall  that  when  I  was  about  eight  years  of  age  I  did 
something  of  which  Isaac  disapproved.  I  saw  I  was  to  receive 
a  reprimand  or  something  worse,  so  off  I  ran,  without  counting 
the  cost,  for  Isaac  pursued  and,  catching  me,  said,  with  perfect 
calmness,  "I  will  punish  you  for  doing  wrong,  and  then  I  will 
punish  you  for  running  away,"  and  so  he  did,  by  giving  me  some 


1  6  S/#  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


vigorous  thumps.  It  would  be  unfair  to  my  brother's  memory 
if  I  did  not  say  that,  later,  when  he  became  a  school-teacher,  he 
avoided  corporal  punishment  on  principle,  as  far  as  possible,  and 
when  he  had  eighty  boys  in  his  charge,  and  I  was  his  assistant, 
the  punishment  must  have  been  slight,  for  I  have  no  distinct 
recollection  of  a  single  flogging. 

The  seriously  active  and  self-denying  nature  of  Isaac  Pitman 
naturally  fitted  him  to  become  a  Wesleyan  Methodist.  He  could 
not  feed  on  the  dry  husks  of  Church-of-Englandism  of  that  day, 
nor  would  his  reason  permit  him  to  accept  the  chilling  faith  of 
his  mother's  unthinkable  Calvinism,  and  so,  when  about  eighteen, 
he  became  an  earnest  and  devoted  Methodist.  Wesleyan  Method- 
ism, seventy  years  ago,  retained  much  of  the  simplicity  of  life, 
dress  and  manners  of  Wesley  and  his  immediate  followers,  and 
their  Methodism  was  an  active  propagandism,  Christian  zeal,  and 
devotedness  to  spiritual  things  like  that  which  characterized  the 
life  and  labor  of  that  beautiful  soul,  its  founder.  Those  were  days 
before  Methodism  became  respectable;  when  Methodist  chapels 
were  barn-like  structures  ;  when  its  adherents  were,  for  the  most 
part,  gathered  from  the  people,  and  not  from  the  classes  ;  when 
Methodism  was  regarded  not  merely  as  a  heresy,  but  an  apostasy 
from  the  church,  and,  perhaps,  the  least  respectable  and  most 
disliked  form  of  dissent.  One,  like  my  brother,  who  would  be 
claimed  as  a  Church-of-England  youth,  would  be  ostracized  by  a 
defection  to  Methodism.  It  needed  the  heroism  of  high  resolve 
to  avow  himself  a  Wesleyan  in  those  early  days  of  Methodism. 
Church-of-England  toryism  of  that  period  met  all  forms  of  prog- 
ress, whether  religious,  political  or  educational,  in  a  spirit  of  bitter 
hostility.  What  intolerance  we  have  outgrown,  even  within  the 
memory  of  the  living  !  The  views  and  feelings  of  the  majority  of 
the  English  clergy  of  that  day  are  reflected  in  a  passage  worth  re- 
calling, which  refers  to  the  proposed  repeal,  by  the  British  Par- 
liament, of  those  unjust,  cruel  and  obnoxious  restrictions,  social, 
civil,  and  political,  to  which  Catholics,  Quakers  and  some  other 
Dissenters  were  then  subject,  known  in  history  as  the  Corporation 
and  Test  Acts.  "If  the  present  ecclesiastical  constitution  must 
fall,  far  better  is  it  to  consign  ourselves  to  the  high-toned  toryism 
of  popery,  than  to  crouch  to  the  abject  republicanism  and  the  low- 
born canaille  of  dissent."  This  occurs  in  the  "Lives  of  the  Bishops 
of  Bath  and  Wells,"  by  the  Rev.  S.  Hyde  Casson.M.  A.,  F.  S.  A., 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  YOUTHFUL  DAYS.  17 

1829,  and  Methodism  is  the  special  heresy  aimed  at!  From  to- 
day's stand-point,  it  seems  amazing  that  a  cultured  English 
clergyman  should  thus  commit  himself  to  record  with  respect  to 
a  branch  of  the  Christian  church,  which,  in  this  country  at  least, 
has  grown  as  "respectable"  as  Kpiscopalianism,  quite  as  wealthy, 
and,  socially  and  politically,  more  powerful.  How  utterly  the 
conservative  spirit  of  that  day  misread  the  growth  of  human 
progress;  how  completely  they  failed  to  divine  that  in  little 
more  than  half  a  century,  these  despised  Wesleyan  seceders  would 
worship  in  their  own  Gothic  churches,  and  aid  their  devotional 
services  by  vested  choirs  whose  performance  would  equal  those 
heard  only  in  their  own  cathedrals.  This  spirit  of  opposition  to 
needed  progress  was  afterwards  encountered  by  the  subject  of 
this  memoir,  when  he  proposed  to  smooth  the  path  of  learning 
for  the  young  by  the  reform  of  English  spelling.  Methodism 
suited  the  active  temperament  of  Isaac  Pitman,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  than  that  it  gave  him  something  worth  doing  on  the 
Sunday,  for  he  was  barely  twenty  when  he  began  to  preach,  and 
to  meet  this  duty  meant  considerable  thought  and  preparation, 
and  often  a  walk  of  many  miles  into  the  country  before  reaching 
the  scene  of  his  appointment. 


THE  intellectual  and  moral  rigidity  of  Isaac  Pitman's 
character  came  from  his  father,  who  was,  in  family  mat- 
ters, a  disciplinarian.  He  was  strict,  indeed  severe,  but 
never  harsh  in  the  treatment  of  his  children.  We  were  taught 
to  obey,  and  we  did  so  from  habit,  influenced  doubtless  by  know- 
ing the  penalty  of  disobedience.  Father's  requests,  disagreeable 
though  they  might  seem,  were  complied  with  promptly  and  with- 
out an  audible  murmur  or  clouded  brow.  We  were  probably  not 
so  prompt  as  the  Wesley  children,  of  whom  John  Wesley  said 
that  if  he  and  Charles  were  writing,  they  would  stop  in  the  mid- 
dle of  a  character  to  obey  a  command  from  either  mother  or 
father.  If  the  Wesley  children  were  not  born  to  obedience,  the 
mother,  before  they  could  walk,  "broke  their  wills  and  reduced 
them  to  subjection."  Our  mother's  commands  were  not  always 
obeyed  with  like  promptitude.  Her  request  might  be  met  with 
little  objections,  but  a  repeated  "Please  do  it"  was  instantly 
obeyed,  for  well  we  knew  that  disobedience  would  be  reported  to 
father,  and  that  would  only  add  to  the  gravity  of  the  offense. 
John  Ruskin  says  the  best  and  truest  blessings  of  his  life  came 
from  his  being  taught  perfect  obedience,  and  the  meaning  of 
peace  in  thought,  aim,  and  word.  "I  never  had  heard  my  father's 
or  mother's  voice  once  raised  in  any  question  with  each  other, 
nor  seen  an  angry  or  even  slightly  hurt  or  offended  glance  in  the 

19 


20  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

eyes  of  either;"  and  "I  obeyed  word  or  lifted  finger  of  father 
or  mother,  simply  as  a  ship  her  helm."  I  think  few  will  read 
the  passages  John  Ruskin  wrote  of  his  childhood  without  con- 
cluding that  the  exacting  discipline  of  his  mother  would  have 
harmed  and  hardened  a  less  gentle  nature.  We,  surely,  were 
equally  blest,  for  an  angry  or  even  hasty  word  or  a  passionate 
glance  of  the  eye  of  either  of  my  parents  would  have  been  as 
unlocked  for  and  startling  to  me  as  the  lifting  of  the  roof  or  the 
upheaving  of  the  foundations  of  the  house. 

The  Pitman  boys  were  disciplined  by  whipping, — six  or 
eight  strokes  on  the  back,  with  coat  removed,  were  given  with  a 
strap,  "which  broke  no  bones."  We  were  called  up  to  father's 
desk,  no  flinching  was  allowed,  and  the  chastisement  always 
wound  up  with  an  affirmative  response  to  the  question,  "Will 
you  promise  not  to  repeat  this  ? "  We  cried  aloud,  but  were 
careful  not  to  make  too  boisterous  a  demonstration,  knowing 
that  would  only  bring  an  extra  stroke  or  two.  The  girls  were 
never  whipped,  and  I  do  not  think  the  boys  were  subjected  to 
corporal  punishment  after  they  were  thirteen  or  fourteen  years 
of  age.  Father  never  punished  a  child  in  anger,  and  a  passion- 
ate or  hasty  blow  was  a  thing  unknown.  Our  chastisement  was 
inflicted  from  a  parental  sense  of  duty,  and  was  administered 
with  such  judicial  impartiality  that  generally  I  felt,  by  the  time 
the  tears  were  dry,  that  the  penalty  about  balanced  the  crime. 
This  was  a  period  when  the  old  style  of  corporal  punishment 
was  in  vogue,  when  the  chastisement  of  boys  in  public  and 
private  schools  was,  from  today's  standpoint,  brutal  in  its  severity 
and  frequency.  I  remember  being  one  of  nearly  two  hundred 
boys  in  a  school  where,  on  one  occasion,  every  boy  was  whipped 
for  the  prank  of  an  undiscovered  culprit.  We  were  ranked  in 
single  file,  and,  as  the  master  came  up,  the  right  hand  of  each 
possible  culprit  was  extended,  palm  uppermost,  and  a  sharp  blow 
was  struck  with  a  cane.  Some  boys  would  screw  up  their  nerves 
to  bear  it  with  a  suppressed  grin,  but  to  a  sensitive  nature  and 
skin  the  pain  was  horrible,  and  the  hand  would  smart  for  hours 
after  the  punishment.  If  a  boy,  in  his  terror,  withdrew  his  hand, 
as  many  did,  he  was  given  a  double  stroke.  It  was  noticeable 
in  our  family  that  as  it  increased,  the  punishments  grew  less 
frequent,  and  the  younger  boys  knew  less  of  the  severe  discipline 
that  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  elders.  There  was  a  legend  in  the  fam- 


THE  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.  21 

ily,  among  the  children,  that  Isaac  was  never  whipped,  meaning 
that  he  never  needed  it.  Only  grave  offenses  were  punished — 
grave  from  the  child's  standpoint — ordinary  ones  were  condoned 
with  a  reprimand  or  caution  not  to  offend  a  second  time.  The 
last  whipping  for  which  I  was  "called  up  to  the  desk,"  was,  I 
remember,  for  enticing  my  younger  sister  into  a  quagmire,  in 
which  my  clothes  were  much  bespattered,  and  my  sister  was 
smirched  to  her  knees.  The  experience  I  have  gained  in  the 
seventy  years  since  I  received  my  last  whipping,  leaves  me  in 
doubt  as  to  the  efficacy  of  corporal  punishment,  and  I  think  that 
equally  good  results  in  our  case  might,  in  the  long  run,  have 
followed  a  milder  course.  Who  can  tell?  There  seems  to  be  no 
unvarying  rule  for  the  management  of  children,  so  unlike  in 
physical  and  mental  organization,  and  especially  in  the  won- 
drously  changed  social  conditions  of  today,  save  that  of  never- 
ending  lovingkindness,  tempered  with  infinite  patience.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  none  of  father's  nine  children,  who  have  reared 
families  with  differing  degrees  of  success,  have  followed  his  some- 
what severe  rule. 

In  my  early  days,  the  English  family  had  not  outgrown  the 
feudal  system.  Children  were  made  to  feel  they  were  but  serfs 
and  thralls  with  "no  rights,"  only  duty  and  service  to  those 
whom  Providence  had  set  over  them.  When  I  think  of  the  easy 
familiarity  with  which  my  children  treat  me,  I  recall  with  amaze- 
ment that  in  my  young  days,  on  each  return  from  school,  on 
entering  the  room  in  which  my  mother  sat,  standing  near  the 
door,  I  made  my  customary  bow  of  salutation,  repeating,  with 
becoming  gravity,  "Your  servant,  ma'am,"  or  "Your  servant, 
mother." 

A  bit  of  English  history  is  associated  with  one  of  the  latest 
of  my  punishments.  One  summer  evening  father  and  mother 
had  left  the  house  to  attend  the  weekly  service  at  the  chapel.  It 
so  happened  that  on  the  afternoon  of  that  day  I  violated  some 
rule,  and  for  the  offense  was  promptly  sent  to  bed  immediately 
after  tea.  A  few  minutes  after  my  parents  were  out  of  sight,  the 
London  stage-coach  came  in,  stopping  at  an  inn  opposite  our 
house.  Something  unusual  had  happened.  The  London  stage- 
coach was  decorated  with  flags  and  evergreens,  and  the  guard 
blew  his  horn  with  unusual  vigor  while  driving  into  the  town. 
A  crowd  instantly  collected  around  the  stage-coach  to  learn  the 


22  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


SAMUEL    PITMAN. 


THE  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.  23 

exciting  news  that  the  Reform  Bill  had  past !  A  few  minutes 
only  seemed  necessary  to  bring  out  the  town  band.  A  proces- 
sion was  formed,  and  the  townspeople  marched  and  shouted  as 
only  victorious  patriots  can.  I  joined  the  procession  and  made 
one  of  the  shouters.  Jubilant  as  a  ten-year-old  boy  may  be,  I 
was  prudent  enough  to  be  back  in  bed  when  my  parents 
returned.  The  Reform  Bill,  bitterly  opposed  by  the  nobility  and 
all  the  rich,  conservative  classes,  after  years  of  struggle  was 
finally  past  (1832),  and  a  revolution  averted  !  The  Reform  Bill 
abolished  the  "rotten  burroughs."  In  my  native  county,  Wilts, 
old  Sarum,  with  its  thirteen  voters,  sent  two  members  to  parlia- 
ment, while  large,  populous  towns  like  Birmingham,  Sheffield, 
Leeds,  and,  I  believe,  Manchester,  had  no  representation. 

I  had  grown  to  manhood,  and  left  home,  before  the  thought 
ever  distinctly  occurred  to  me  that  my  father  was  other  than  an 
ordinary  personage.  I  knew  that  he  was  intelligent,  that  he  was 
very  generally  looked  up  to,  and  his  advice  in  township  matters 
riot  infrequently  sought.  I  knew  he  had  executive  ability  to 
manage  a  large  cloth  manufactory,  and  was  equal  to  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  many  conflicting  human  interests  that  grew  out  of 
such  a  charge.  I  knew  that  he  had  been  an  earnest  educational 
pioneer.  Determined  on  some  form  of  popular  education,  he  had 
secured  subscriptions  and  had  seen  a  large  school  house  built — 
the  first,  I  believe,  in  the  west  of  England — for  the  instruction 
of  the  children  of  the  working  classes.  Such  schools  were  con- 
ducted ort  the  "Bell  and  Lancaster"  systems.  They  were  unsec- 
tarian,  and  were  frowned  upon  by  the  supporters  of  the  estab- 
lished church.  It  was  years  afterwards,  in  my  native  town, 
before  church  people  followed  in  the  "revolutionary"  road,  and 
built  their  first  parochial  school.  I  knew,  too,  that  my  father 
had  been  the  moving  spirit  in  the  establishment  of  the  first 
Infant  School  in  our  town,  on  the  Pestalotsian  system,  and  further 
that  he  had  aided  the  temperance  movement  years  before  the 
teetotal  crusade.  I  knew  he  had  established  a  library  for  his 
work-people,  and  stocked  a  room  with  a  few  hundred  readable 
books,  and  that  he  frequently  sat  there  and  read  of  an  evening  to 
encourage  a  few  among  the  working  people  who  could  read,  to 
spend  their  evenings  in  like  manner.  I  knew,  too,  that  his  influ- 
ence and  example  had  prevented  our  home  from  being  occasion- 
ally turned  to  a  domestic  bedlam.  In  my  Uncle  X's  family  the 


24  SJR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

children  frequently  quarreled  and  scolded  at  meal  and  at  other 
times,  after  the  proverbial  fashion  of  "cats  and  dogs."  I  knew 
that  in  Uncle  L,'s  family,  though,  the  children  were  as  well 
instructed  as  we  were ;  they  thought  less  of  books  and  studies 
than  of  business  and  getting  rich  by  availing  themselves  of  the 
labor  of  others. 

It  was  thus  only  after  I  left  home  and  was  brought  in  con- 
tact with  other  men  that  I  realized  how  much  father  differed  from 
the  majority.  He  was  freer  from  illusions  than  most  men.  He 
did  not  imagine  that  his  opinion  and  criticism  were  essential  on 
all  points  and  occasions ;  he  was  therefore  a  man  of  few  words, 
but  what  he  did  say  seemed  reasonable  and  pertinent,  and  better 
said  than  left  unsaid.  He  was  wholly  free  from  the  illusion  of 
attaching  importance  to  creeds  and  dogmas.  He  knew  that  the 
views  of  men  relating  to  life,  here  and  hereafter,  had  been  matters 
of  growth  and  change  from  time  immemorial,  and  that  it  was  no 
part  of  wisdom  to  assume  certainty  about  things  concerning 
which  the  wisest  and  best  of  men  radically  differed.  He  was  not 
only  tolerant  of  other  people's  views  on  politics,  religion  and 
morals,  but  they  seemed  to  interest  him  chiefly  as  indications  by 
which  to  measure  the  worth  and  credibilty  of  men.  He  always 
seemed  more  willing  to  listen  than  to  talk,  and  he  had  Sir  Walter 
Scott's  instinct  of  getting  out  of  people  what  they  knew  that  was 
of  interest  or  importance.  In  politics  he  was  a  Liberal,  though  his 
master,  whom  he  served  till  mid  manhood,  was  a  stanch  Tory. 
The  political  representative  who  seemed  concerned  for  the  public 
welfare  rather  than  upholding  class  interests,  always  commanded 
his  vote  and  earnest  support.  The  removal  of  ignorance,  by  the 
dissemination  of  knowledge,  father  regarded  as  the  important 
work  of  his  life,  and  efforts  in  this  direction  occupied  all  the  time 
he  could  spare  from  the  somewhat  exacting  duties  of  his  cloth- 
manufacturing  business.  He  enjoyed  good  health.  I  never 
remember  him  ailing  in  any  particular ;  indeed,  for  father  to  have 
complained  of  head,  heart  or  stomach-ache,  would  have  seemed 
so  much  of  a  novelty  as  to  be  akin  to  a  joke.  He  never  coddled 
himself  with  any  form  of  table  luxuries ;  he  ate  simple  food,  and 
was  compensated  by  enjoying  it  to  the  latest  days  of  his  life.  He 
was  essentially  a  man  of  action,  but  wholly  free  from  a  hurried, 
or  bustling  habit.  He  was  always  occupied,  and  I  never  remem- 
ber seeing  him  deliberately  seat  himself  to  rest.  When  the  day's 


THE  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.  25 

duties  were  over  he  took  his  arm  chair  by  the  fire,  but  never 
without  a  book,  which  he  would  close  up  on  his  thumb,  if  any- 
thing of  interest  made  an  occasion  for  talk  with  mother  or  the 
children.  In  these  days  of  changing  fashion  in  dress  it  is  worth 
recalling  that  father,  all  his  life,  retained  the  habit  of  his  youth 
and  wore  knee-breeches.  "Full  dress,"  when  he  left  the  house 
or  counting-house  for  town  calls,  church,  or  meeting,  consisted 
simply  of  donning  gaitors  to  cover  his  stockings.  Black  broad- 
cloth constituted  his  uniform  clothing.  Recreations?  He  had 
none.  His  business  took  him  to  London, — one  hundred  miles 
distance,  by  stage-coach, — about  twice  a  year  for  a  stay  of  three 
to  five  days.  When  I  was  about  twelve  years  of  age  I  enjoyed  the 
great  treat  of  being  taken  to  London  on  one  of  these  journeys. 
Father  was  my  guide  for  a  week,  and  a  visit  to  the  National 
Gallery,  the  Cathedrals,  the  Tower  of  London,  the  Sloan  Museum, 
and  a  few  other  of  the  rarer  sights  of  the  great  metropolis, — when 
I  saw  fine  pictures,  fine  statuary,  fine  buildings,  fine  missal  illu- 
mination, and  a  forest  of  shipping  for  the  first  time, — were  sensory 
visions,  that  have  remained  so  vivid  that  they  made  a  sort  of 
mental  nuclei,  round  which  seem  to  cluster  all  that  has  since 
reached  my  brain  through  the  sense  of  sight. 

Yet  father's  education  in  his  boyhood  was  limited  in  the 
extreme.  I  have  frequently  heard  him  say — I  think  more  as 
a  boast  than  a  confession — that  he  received  but  one  week's 
regular  schooling  in  his  life.  He  must  have  been  a  youth  of 
unusual  aptitude  and  diligence;  for  by  the  time  I  was  old  enough 
to  judge,  he  was  considered  a  well-informed  man.  He  had  made 
a  special  study  of  astronomy,  so  that  he  could  calculate  eclipses; 
and,  after  the  fashion  of  the  period,  he  became  absorbed  in 
astrology.  Our  Family  Bible  contained  the  carefully-drawn 
horoscopes  of  every  member  of  the  family,  all  the  work  of 
father's  brain  and  hand.  In  after  years,  to  his  credit  be  it  said, 
he  lost  all  faith  in  the  influence  of  the  planetary  system  on 
human  destinies. 

My  mother  was  calm,  sweet,  and  placid  at  all  times.  I 
never  saw  her  angry,  and  I  have  heard  that  she  had  never  been 
known  to  utter  an  unkind  or  reproachful  word  of  any  person, 
present  or  absent.  She  had  strength  and  firmness  of  character, 
combined  with  perfect  conscientiousness.  Her  smile  was  exceed- 
ingly sweet;  but  she  was  never  known  to  laugh.  Her  features 


26  S/A  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

were  regular,  comely,  and  pleasant,  rather  than  beautiful.  Her 
face,  even  late  in  life,  showed  a  skin  of  clearest  texture,  and  of 
a  pinkish  hue  like  that  of  healthy  childhood.  Her  general  cul- 
ture was  limited.  Her  reading,  in  the  little  time  left  from 
family  cares,  seemed  confined  to  the  Bible  and  Calvinistic  lit- 
erature. She  was  by  nature  and  training  of  a  devotional  tem- 
perament; and  the  extreme  Calvinistic  doctrines,  under  the 
influence  of  which  she  was  born  and  bred,  could  not  but  tend 
to  give  life  and  its  after-prospect  a  necessarily  serious  and  gloomy 
aspect.  I  suppose,  dear  heart,  her  inmost  assurances  were  that 
all  her  own  children  might  be  of  the  elect.  My  mother's  nose 
was  of  perfect  Grecian  type,  save  that  it  was  perceptibly  flat- 
tened at  the  tip.  Isaac  had  father's  slightly  bridged  nose,  with 
mother's  tip.  On  one  occasion,  when  Isaac  returned  home  after 
a  year's  absence,  my  mother  hastened  to  meet  him;  but  the  hall- 
way chanced  to  be  in  darkness.  In  the  embrace,  my  mother, 
to  relieve  her  mind  of  any  uncertainty,  felt  for  the  tip  of  his 
nose.  "Yes,"  said  she,  "it  is  Isaac;  I  could  not  be  mistaken." 
The  conduct  of  the  girls  of  the  family  was  greatly  influenced 
by  mother's  serious  and  religous  feeling.  I  never  heard  a  word 
of  small  talk  at  any  meal,  relating  to  dress  or  fashion,  or  any 
trivial  personal  matter.  As  a  rule,  the  children  under  fourteen 
were  expected  to  be  silent,  and  those  under  twelve  stood  while 
eating.  None  of  the  girls  were  allowed  to  indulge  in  such 
worldly  adornment  as  curls  or  puffs,  or  to  wear  ribbons  in  their 
hair.  No  jewelry  of  any  kind  was  ever  worn  by  any  member 
of  the  family.  The  only  exception  to  this  was  in  the  use  of  a 
small,  round-headed  gold  pin  that  fastened  mother's  muslin 
neckerchief.  None  of  the  children  were  taught  to  dance.  Play- 
ing cards  were  never  seen  in  the  family  circle.  Probably  every 
member  of  the  family  grew  to  adult  age  without  having  handled 
a  card,  or  knowing  the  name  of  any  one  in  the  pack.  Omens, 
lucky  and  unlucky  days  and  things,  were  not  recognized  in  the 
family,  and  were  never  mentioned  save  to  laugh  at  them.  After 
Isaac  left  home  and  became  a  school  teacher,  Wesleyan  Methodist, 
and  a  preacher,  his  letters,  which  were  frequent  and  long  and 
beautifully  written,  must  have  greatly  influenced  mother  and 
father;  for  then  daily  family  prayers  were,  for  the  first  time, 
established  and  regularly  observed.  A  chapter  from  the  Bible 
was  read,  each  of  us  taking  a  verse.  This  was  followed  by  an 


THE  FATHER  AND  MOTHER.  27 

extemporary  prayer  from  mother ;  and  how  pleading,  pathetic 
and  devotional  it  was !  What  else  could  come  from  a  pure  and 
lovely  soul  who  had  been  taught  to  believe  herself  the  "chief 
among  sinners"  and  who  could  hope  to  escape  eternal  torture 
only  by  the  free  grace  and  abundant  mercy  of  a  terrible  God? 
My  mother's  life  was,  on  the  whole,  singularly  free  from  any 
abiding  sorrow.  Neither  her  husband,  his  affairs,  her  household, 
nor  her  children  brought  her,  as  far  as  I  remember,  a  single  real 
trouble.  Yet  her  gloomy  faith  made  what  should  have  been  a 
sunlit  existence  unduly  grave  and  somber.  In  a  retrospect  one 
cannot  but  wish  she  had  possessed  the  reasoning  suspicion  of 
the  pious  Scotch  mother,  whose  boy  having  been  "cut  off  in 
his  sins,"  and,  from  the  orthodox  standpoint,  doomed  to  pay  the 
eternal  penalty  of  the  non-elect,  was  prayed  for  by  his  stricken 
parent :  "Oh,  L,ord,  if  Ye  had  been  a  mither,  Ye  nae  wad  hae 
done  it." 


28 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


Kingston  House  was  selected  by  the  appointed  Committee  of 
British  Architects  to  be  reproduced  at  the  late  Paris  Exhibition,  as 
the  best  available  type  of  a  fine  English  Home.  "The  reproduction 
at  the  British  Pavilion  of  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  Kingston  House, 
Bradford-on-Avon,  has  naturally  attracted  fresh  attention  to  that 
fine  specimen  of  British  architecture  of  the  period  when  the  strong 
castle  having  become  obsolete,  the  lordly  mansion  took  its  place. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  associations  of  Kingston  House  is  that 
for  man}r  years  it  was  the  home  of  the  Pitman  family."  Mr.  Frederick 
Harrison  writes :  "The  British  Pavilion,  though  one  of  the  least  con- 
spicuous, is  the  best  and  most  truly  artistic  in  the  whole  Street  of 
Nations, — the  only  one,  indeed,  that  a  man  of  taste  can  view  without 
a  smile  or  groan." — T^cmdon  Press. 


were  two  in  our  family  whose  characteristics  were 
of  so  serious,  self-denying  and  earnest  a  type,  that  their 
individuality  must  have  stood  out  in  marked  relief 
among  the  young  people  with  whom  they  associated.  Melissa 
was  the  first-born,  and  between  her  and  Isaac,  who  was  four 
years  younger,  there  was  a  spiritual  kinship  that  probably, 
though  unconsciously,  influenced  my  brother's  entire  life.  She 
was  the  first  of  the  family  to  break  away  from  the  cruel  logic 
of  Calvinistic  orthodoxy  in  which  the  family  had  been  schooled, 
and  she  was  the  first  to  suffer  persecution,  and  pay  the  pioneer's 
price  for  taking  an  advanced  step  in  the  religious  evolutionary 
march.  Melissa  was  a  teacher  in  the  Sunday-school,  and  a  reg- 
ular attendant  on  the  Calvinistic  preaching  of  the  family  min- 
ister, when  she  was  spiritually  aroused  by  the  teachings  of  a  new 
sect  that  invaded  our  town,  professing  to  preach  and  practise  the 
doctrines  of  the  earliest  Christians.  They  were  called  Irving- 
ites,  and  from  1825  to  1835  attracted  much  attention  in  England, 
the  sect  spreading  rapidly  through  the  large  towns,  though  the 
congregations  were  never  large.  My  sister  attached  herself  with 
entire  devotion  to  this  revived  primitive  church.  Though  her 
life  was  full  of  duties,  she  was  never  absent  from  their  daily 
morning  and  evening  services,  the  first  beginning  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning.  These  people  professed  to  follow  the  rule  and 
practise  of  the  primitive  Christians,  and  called  themselves  the 
Catholic  Apostolic  Church.  They  set  duty  before  dogma,  and 
insisted  on  daily  life  and  conduct  that  should  square  with  an 
educated  Christian  conscience.  I  do  not  remember  that  they 
advocated  a  community  of  goods,  but  they  consistently  revived 
the  early  Christian  practise  of  paying  a  tithe  of  their  income  to 
the  church. 

29 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

The  religious  community  from  which  my  sister  seceded  were 
greatly  moved,  and  considered  it  their  duty  to  be  shocked  and 
scandalized  at  her  conduct.  Our  preacher  was  a  remarkable  man. 
In  bodily  proportions  and  positiveness  he  was  a  veritable  Dr. 
Johnson,  and  he  must  have  excelled  the  learned  Doctor  in 
strength  of  lung.  He  was  a  man  of  very  limited  culture,  but  was 
profoundly  religious,  gloomy,  and  dogmatic.  He  had  a  stentorian 
voice  that  did  not  lack  a  certain  rude  melody  and  persuasiveness 
when  he  became  aroused,  as  was  his  wont,  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  sermons.  Then  his  voice  rose  and  rolled  in  such  tumultuous 
waves  that  he  greatly  impressed  those  who  were  within  the 
tabernacle,  and  I  have  heard  my  father  say  that  he  had  distinctly 
heard  the  preacher's  voice  through  the  open  windows  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  from  the  pulpit.  Our  minister  did  not  like  the  defec- 
tion of  a  member  of  one  of  his  leading  families,  and  he  thundered 
his  invectives  and  metaphorically  shook  his  pastoral  crook  at 
stray  lambs,  and  the  whole  congregation  knew  that  it  was  my 
gentle  sister  who  had  strayed  from  the  shepherd's  care. 

The  Irvingites,  as  a  sect,  seem  to  have  disappeared  from 
the  religious  world.  The  founder  was  Edward  Irving,  a  Scotch 
minister,  who  had  been  assistant  to  Dr.  Chalmers  in  Glasgow, 
but  it  was  not  until  he  settled  in  London  that  he  became  a 
celebrity.  He  was  a  man  of  remarkable  intellect  and  extraor- 
dinary oratorical  powers.  That  he  was  the  loved  and  admired 
friend  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  and  had  been  the  teacher  of  Jane 
Welsh,  who  became  Carlyle's  loving  wife,  are  facts  which  indicate 
that  he  was  a  man  cast  in  no  ordinary  mold.  Irving  was  tall, 
grave  and  solemn.  Earnestness  and  deep  religious  fervor  per- 
vaded his  delivery.  His  aspect  was  commanding  and  his  coun- 
tenance was  marked  by  a  dark  and  melancholy  beauty.  The 
tones  of  his  voice  were  remarkably  deep,  melodious,  sympathetic 
and  of  unusual  power.  Irving's  oratory  must  have  been  of  no 
ordinary  kind  to  call  forth  a  reference  to  it  from  Canning,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  mention  of  which  is  made  in  the  sketch  of 
Irving's  life,  given  in  the  last  addition  of  the  Encyclopedia 
Britannica.  Such  was  the  powerful  influence  of  his  preaching 
that  it  gave  rise  to  a  class  of  extraordinary  manifestations,  which, 
by  his  followers,  were  believed  to  be  of  supernatural  origin. 
Men  and  women  in  the  congregation,  the  latter  more  especially, 
would  shriek  out  strange,  weird,  unintelligible  utterances,  that 


MELISSA,  THE  FIRST  BORN.  31 

were  deemed  prophecies  by  Irving's  followers.  These  utter- 
ances, which  were  called  "unknown  tongues,"  have  since  been 
generally  regarded  as  hysterical,  psychic  manifestations,  due  to 
the  preacher's  religious  fervor,  his  hypnotic  and  extraordinary 
oratorical  powers.  This,  evidently,  was  the  view  of  them  taken 
by  Irving's  more  intelligent  cotemporaries,  and  certainly  by 
Mrs.  Carlyle,  with  whom,  before  her  marriage,  Irving  was  once 
deeply  in  love.  She  is  reported  to  have  said,  "Had  I  married 
Irving,  there  would  have  been  no  unknown  tongues." 

Irving  is  credited  with  first  using  the  expression,  "The 
fatherhood  of  God,"  and  he  preached  a  faith  in  accord  with  the 
thought.  The  phrase  caught  the  religious  world  and  had  much 
to  do  in  lessening  the  terrors  of  the  older  religious  belief.  The 
great  preacher  seemed  gifted  with  prophetic  fore-light.  He  did 
not  accept  the  social  disquietude  and  antagonisms  of  life  as 
other  than  passing  conditions,  from  which  St.  James'  Christianity 
would  deliver,  first  the  church,  and  ultimately  the  world.  Years 
afterwards  some  writer  of  note  used  the  equally  expressive  phrase, 
"The  brotherhood  of  man,"  two  short  terms  that  express  a 
modern  phrase  of  belief  and  hope,  and  which  have  tended  to 
humanize  the  religious  and  social  thought  of  today.  The  evo- 
lutionary idea,  however,  might  be  credited  to  the  progress  of 
human  thought  that  grew  out  of  the  American  revolution,  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  Thomas  Paine  used  the  all- 
embracing  expression,  "The  brotherhood  of  the  human  race,"  to 
typify  an  ideal,  universal  fraternity,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
then  prevailing  rule  of  Kings  and  the  submission  of  Subjects. 

Edward  Irving,  like  John  Wesley,  was  highly  susceptible 
to  aesthetic  emotions.  On  one  occasion  he  accompanied  some 
aristocratic  ladies  of  his  congregation  on  a  tour  through  one  of 
the  poor  districts  of  London,  in  search  of  children  to  attend  their 
school.  In  one  wretched  apology  for  a  home,  they  found  a  child 
of  exceptional  interest  and  beauty,  with  large  blue  eyes,  and 
long,  wavy  golden  hair.  Now  it  was  a  rule  of  the  school  that 
every  child  should  have  its  hair  cut  short.  Irving's  eyes  and 
heart  were  moved  by  the  child's  beauty,  and  he  is  said  to  have 
feelingly  joined  the  mother  in  her  pleadings  to  spare  the  child's 
golden  adornment;  b.ut  the  high-born  dames  had  no  heart  to 
be  softened  by  their  appeal;  the  iron  rule  was  not  to  be  broken. 

Only  a  soul   of  unusual   worth,  possessing   in  no  ordinary 


32  57/?  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

measure  the  gifts  of  intellect,  imagination  and  expression,  would 
attract  the  friendship  and  excite  the  admiration  of  men  so  unlike 
as  Chalmers,  Coleridge,  Carlyle,  Wordsworth,  Wilkie,  Sir  Wm. 
Hamilton  and  Canning.  Irving  throughout  his  brilliant  but 
brief  career,  was  equally  remarkable  for  his  child-like  simplicity 
and  mental  and  spiritual  gifts,  as  for  his  amazing  credulity.  In 
keeping  with  his  unsophisticated  nature  was  an  incident  which 
occurred  at  one  of  his  London,  suburban,  open-air  preachings. 
During  his  discourse,  when  a  standing  throng  of  thousands  hung 
breathless  on  his  words,  an  alarm  was  created  by  the  cries  of  a 
mother,  whose  child  had  strayed  from  her  side  and  was  lost  in  the 
vast  assembly.  But  soon  the  child  was  raised  aloft  in  the  throng, 
and  the  excitement  of  the  mother  was  calmed  as  Irving  cried 
aloud,  "Give  me  the  child."  The  preacher  took  it  as  it  was 
passed  over  the  heads  of  the  crowd,  and  it  instantly  nestled  on 
his  breast  in  perfect  peace.  He  continued  his  discourse,  but 
now  his  theme  was  changed  to  the  Saviour's  loving  regard  for 
the  young,  and  with  the  child  tenderly  held  in  his  arms,  he 
concluded  an  exhortation  of  such  winning  and  commanding 
eloquence  that  all  who  heard  it  would  probably  retain  a  vivid 
impression  of  it  through  life.  Irving's  teachings  did  much  to 
mold  the  ethical  and  spiritual  character  of  my  sister,  and  she, 
in  turn,  influenced  and  strengthened  the  moral  and  spiritual 
fiber  of  her  sympathetic  brother  Isaac. 

How  it  came  about  I  do  not  know,  but  it  so  happened  that 
a  leading  family  at  Trowbridge,  who  were  the  disciples  of  the 
"new  lights,"  were  a  family  of  wealth  and  intelligence.  They 
must  have  been  attracted  by  my  sister's  devotional  earnestness, 
and  she  became  so  much  of  a  favorite  that  she  was  invited  to 
accompany  them  to  London  on  a  religious  pilgrimage  to  see 
and  hear  the  celebrated  divine.  They  were  the  guests  of  Mr. 
and  Lady  Drummond,  an  aristocratic  family  of  intelligence, 
wealth,  and  the  highest  social  standing,  all  of  which  had  been 
dedicated  to  the  service  of  the  newly-arisen  prophet.  Seeing 
and  hearing  the  great  leader  made  a  profound  impression  on 
Melissa,  and  added,  were  it  possible,  a  tenfold  zeal  to  her  devo- 
tion to  primitive  Christianity.  She  became  more  severe  and 
Quaker-like  in  the  fashion  of  her  dress,  eschewing  all  colors  but 
black  or  the  somberest  gray.  I  recall  an  instance  of  her  ascetic 
rigidness.  A  mirror  which  hung  over  the  mantel  of  her  sitting- 


MELISSA,  THE  FIRST  BORN. 


33 


room  she  had  removed,  that  she  might  not  be  tempted  to  cast 
a  glance  at  her  reflected  image  on  passing  it.  She  conducted  a 
private  school  for  girls  and  instructed  pupils  on  the  piano.  She 
was  active,  but  serene,  intelligent,  self-sacrificing,  and  devotional. 
She  was  not  a  bigot,  but  was  always  anxious  for  further  light. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  years  she  became,  through  Isaac's  influ- 
ence, a  reader  and  receiver  of  the  doctrines  of  Swedenborg,  and 
so  continued  to  the  day  of  her  death. 


IT  was  an  important  event  in  Isaac  Pitman's  career,  and, 
though  unforeseen  at  the  time,  proved  to  be  the  turning 
point  in  the  destinies  of  the  Pitman  family,  when  Isaac,  at 
nineteen,  left  home  for  the  Borough  Road  Training  College, 
London,  father  having  decided  to  make  him  a  school  teacher. 
This  was  at  a  period  when  the  necessity  of  some  general  system 
of  education  for  the  people  first  began  to  arrest  attention  in  Eng- 
land, and  before  school-teaching  was  a  recognized  profession. 
Great  was  the  surprise  of  our  relatives  and  friends  at  father's  odd 
determination,  but  he  had  resolved  that  had  he  a  hundred  chil- 
dren, to  use  his  own  words,  he  wrould  not  bring  up  one  of  them 
to  his  own  business,  with  its  cares,  perplexities,  competition  and 
possible  misfortunes.  In  subsequent  years,  five  others  of  the 
family — Jacob  and  Joseph,  of  the  boys,  and  Rosella,  Jane  and 
Mary,  of  the  girls,  were  received  and  trained  in  this  college  and 
afterwards  appointed  to  schools  in  different  parts  of  England. 
So  thorough  was  the  satisfaction  which  Isaac  gave  at  the  train- 
ing college,  and  so  encouraging  were  the  reports  he  himself  sent 
home,  that  Jacob,  who  had  served  seven  years'  apprenticeship  to 
a  carpenter  and  builder,  concluded  that  school  teaching  might  be 
the  more  profitable  use  of  his  life,  and  when  father  personally 
applied  at  the  college  for  the  admission  of  another  of  his  sons, 
the  Director,  the  able  and  admirable  Henry  Dunn,  answered 
with  a  compliment  which  father  was  fond  of  repeating,  "Yes, 

35 


36  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

you  may  send  me  as  man)-  more  of  your  children  as  you  can 
spare." 

The  Borough  Road  College,  in  which  Isaac  Pitman  was  now 
installed,  was  the  great  central  parent  school,  in  which  young 
men  and  women  who  were  sufficiently  educated  were  received 
to  be  trained  in  the  working  details  of  the  Bell  and  Lancaster 
system  of  popular  instruction.  The  college  consisted  of  separate 
departments  for  male  and  female  teachers,  and  each  department 
had  a  double  function,  the  training  of  teachers  and  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  young.  The  teachers  were  domiciled  at  the  institu- 
tion, which  included  two  large  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  in  each 
of  which  four  or  five  hundred  children,  from  seven  to  fourteen 
years  of  age,  received  an  elementary  education.  It  is  a  novelty, 
from  today's  pedagogic  standpoint,  to  recall  a  visit  I  made  to  this 
institution  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  when  I  witnessed  its 
semi-military  and  somewhat  despotic  training  and  discipline.  In 
the  great  parent  school  I  found  nearly  five  hundred  boys  assem- 
bled in  one  large  square  room,  the  floor  of  which,  rising  at  a 
slight  angle,  theater  fashion,  had  its  center  filled  with  parallel 
lines  of  desks  and  seats,  facing  the  front,  leaving  a  space  of  nine 
or  ten  feet  at  the  sides  for  recitation  classes.  A  somewhat  high 
and  imposing  platform,  on  which  the  teacher  was  seated,  occu- 
pied the  lower  end  of  the  room.  The  youngest  children  were 
seated  nearest  the  platform  and  were  graded  towards  the  upprr 
end  according  to  age  and  general  proficiency.  The  system  of 
instruction  of  Bell  and  Lancaster  is  monitorial,  methodical,  and 
semi-military  in  its  operations.  All  movements  of  the  children, 
such  as  turning  and  showing  slates  for  the  inspection  of  the 
monitor ;  all  changes,  such  as  leaving  the  seats  for  the  recitation 
classes,  are  directed  by  a  brief  word  of  command,  given  by  the 
monitor  of  the  day.  At  a  given  command  the  children  would, 
simultaneously,  cease  writing,  and  at  another  command  they  hung 
their  slates  on  a  screw  fastened  in  the  desk  in  front  of  each  boy. 
At  another  command  they  turned  in  their  seats,  facing  to  the 
left,  resting  the  right  hand  on  their  own  desks  and  the  left  on  the 
edge  of  the  desk  immediately  behind  them  ;  at  another  command 
they  jumped  out  and  stood,  facing  the  direction  in  which  they 
were  to  march,  each  boy  standing  erect,  eyes  to  the  front,  with 
hands  clasped  behind  him.  They  remained  in  this  position  till 
their  line  was  ready  to  inarch  to  the  semi-circular  rings  which 


THE  START  IN  LIFE  AS  SCHOOLMASTER.  37 

marked  their' respective  classes  in  the  aisles.  The  marching  was 
commenced  by  the  first  boy  of  the  lowest  row  and  the  first  boy 
of  the  uppermost  row  starting  simultaneously  for  their  classes. 
As  the  last  boy  of  the  first  row  left  his  desk,  the  first  boy  of  the 
second  row  followed,  and  so  on  until  the  seats  were  emptied  and 
the  aisles  filled,  when  the  monitors  took  their  places  in  the  center 
of  each  class,  with  pointer  in  hand,  to  direct  attention  to  the  sus- 
pended chart  or  board,  on  which  was  pasted  the  lesson  of  the 
day.  Books  were  used  only  by  the  advanced  classes.  At  the 
time  referred  to,  I  think  the  only  book  used  was  the  Bible,  possi- 
bly the  New  Testament  only ;  all  the  instruction  in  grammar, 
arithmetic,  geography,  history  and  geometry — the  only  branches, 
with  writing,  then  taught — were  contained  in  clearly-printed 
charts  and  tables.  The  Bell  and  Lancaster  system,  as  before 
intimated,  is  essentially  monitorial,  but  in  the  London  training 
school  the  monitors  were  the  young  men  and  women  who,  in 
actual  service,  gained  the  knowledge  they  aimed  to  acquire. 
Visitors  to  these  schools,  who  knew  by  experience  the  terrific 
noise  of  an  average  grammar  school  of  that  period,  with  its  fifty 
to  seventy  boys,  conning  their  lessons  aloud, — the  babel-like  con- 
fusion being  a  necessary  condition  of  memorizing  their  lessons, 
as  I  have  again  and  again  heard  them  avow, — were  much 
impressed  on  seeing  a  large  concourse  of  children  seated  in  per- 
fect order,  and  pursuing  their  exercises  in  almost  absolute 
silence.  Quietude  in  a  large  assembly  of  children  is  impressive, 
if  only  from  the  fact  that,  where  children  are  gathered  in  num- 
bers, we  naturally  expect  a  certain  amount  of  noise,  varying, 
according  to  circumstances,  from  a  whisper  to  a  noisy  riot.  In 
this  case  the  quietude  was  emphasized  by  the  monitor  of  the  day, 
who,  standing  aloft  at  the  bottom  of  the  room,  slate  in  hand, 
would  occasionally  break  the  silence  by  calling  out,  in  a  subdued 
tone,  and  writing  down  the  name  of  any  restless  culprit  who 
turned  his  head,  whispered  to  his  neighbor,  or  sneezed  or  coughed 
with  undue  energy.  One  novel  effect  of  the  discipline  of  the 
school  I  recall.  I  was  one  of  a  group  of  visitors,  and,  standing 
on  the  platform,  we  looked  at  a  sea  of  brown  heads  bent  over 
their  slates  and  working  away  at  their  exercises  in  studious  quiet- 
ness. The  time  had  arrived  for  the  reading,  by  the  master,  of  the 
morning  lesson  from  the  Scriptures.  The  monitor,  having  stop- 
ped the  writing,  directed  the  slates  to  be  hung,  stood  facing  the 


448548 


38  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

school,  with  his  right  hand  uplifted,  but  closed.  At  the  word  of 
command,  "Heads !"  all  eyes  were  fastened  on  the  monitor's  hand. 
Suddenly  opening  it,  in  an  upward  direction,  every  boy,  whose 
head  a  moment  before  was  perhaps  somewhat  lowered,  for  effect, 
was  jerked  up  and  back,  so  that  the  visitor  saw  something  akin 
to  a  flash  of  light  as  the  bright  sea  of  juvenile  faces  was  suddenly 
brought  into  view.  In  this  position  of  rapt  attention,  with  the 
head  thrown  somewhat  too  far  back  for  comfort,  I  thought,  the 
lesson  was  read,  and  not  a  movement  or  unnecessary  wink  was 
seen  in  that  disciplined  army  during  the  reading. 

The  Bell  and  Lancaster  system,  the  first  British  popular 
educational  experiment,  met  the  requirements  of  that  period  in 
perhaps  the  only  practicable  way.  In  the  absence  of  any  munic- 
ipal or  state  support,  the  schools  had  to  be  conducted  on  the  most 
economic  principle.  The  schools  were  not  wholly  free ;  to  make 
them  so  would  have  offended  British  independence.  Each  pupil 
paid  two  pence  per  week,  and  the  remainder  of  the  necessary 
revenue  was  made  up  by  private  subscriptions  of  the  well-to-do 
classes.  Inefficient  as  the  scheme  might  be  considered  from  the 
present  American  standpoint,  with  its  free  graded  and  high 
schools,  it  furnished  an  illustration  of  the  success  of  one  educa- 
tional factor  which,  in  the  future,  may,  with  advantage,  be 
ingrafted  on  the  American  school  S3'stem,  namely,  the  monitorial 
scheme,  which  has  something  more  than  economy  to  recommend 
it.  Utilizing  some  of  the  time  and  knowledge  of  the  more 
advanced  pupils  in  giving  instruction  to  the  less  advanced,  would 
be  discipline  of  exceeding  value,  and  such  aid  would  lessen  the 
strain  and  nervous  tension  to  which  the  average  teacher  of  today 
is  subjected  by  taking  exclusive  charge  of  a  class  of  forty  or  fifty 
children. 

Isaac  Pitman  spent  five  months  at  the  London  training 
college ;  he  was  then  appointed  to  a  school  at  Barton-on-Humber, 
in  Lincolnshire,  a  town  of  four  thousand  people,  lying  on  the 
flat,  muddy  banks  of  the  estuary,  separated  by  two  or  three 
miles  of  tidal  mud  and  water  from  the  flourishing  seaport  of 
Hull.  The  school  of  which  he  took  charge  was  founded  on 
Long's  charity;  it  was  attended  by  one  hundred  boys,  and  the 
salary  of  the  teacher  was  ^70  per  annum ;  afterwards,  when  his 
efficiency  was  discovered,  it  was  increased  to  ^80. 

Now,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  being  -his  own   master, 


THE  START  IN  LIFE  AS  SCHOOLMASTER.  39 

Isaac  Pitman  was  left  free  to  follow  the  bent  of  an  unusually 
conscientious  and  devotional  nature,  and  he  gave  himself  up, 
with  enthusiam,  to  a  life  of  systematic  duty  and  self-denial. 
Seven  hours  were  devoted  to  the  school,  seven  hours  to  sleep, 
and  the  remaining  ten  were  consecrated  to  study,  devotional 
reading,  self-discipline,  and,  according  to  his  light,  to  the  service 
of  the  Master.  He  parted  his  hair  in  the  middle,  at  a  time  when 
it  was  seen  only  on  women  and  in  the  pictures  of  Puritans  and 
Saints.  He  abandoned  music  because  he  could  make,  as  he 
conceived,  a  better  use  of  the  time,  and  fasted  on  Friday  of  each 
week.  At  one  time  he  touched  no  food  during  the  entire  day, 
a  somewhat  absurd  asceticism,  seeing  he  was  no  professional 
saint,  or  anchorite,  but  a  hard  working  schoolmaster.  Finding 
it  lessened  his  energy  and  impaired  his  usefulness,  he  aban- 
doned such  extreme  abstemiousness  and  henceforward  limited 
himself  to  the  omission  of  one  or  two  meals.  His  Friday  fast- 
ing was  no  make-believe  substitute  of  fish  for  flesh,  but  a  fast  in 
fact  as  in  name.  He  wrote  and  distributed  temperance  tracts, 
lectured  on  the  evils  of  intemperance,  and  tried  his  utmost  to 
wean  the  sea-faring  folk  of  the  little  town  from  the  use  of  rum. 
He  preached  and  conducted  class-meetings,  and  was  accounted 
the  most  zealous  of  the  Methodist  flock.  His  friends,  who  knew 
him  best,  said  that  in  zeal  and  self-denial  he  out-Wesleyed 
Wesley.  His  sense  of  duty  made  him  intensely  earnest,  and  his 
innate  conscientiousness  saved  him  from  being  the  least  bit  of 
a  hypocrite.  During  his  four  years'  residence  at  Barton  he  read 
through  the  Scriptures  published  by  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society,  and  corrected  the  errors  in  the  parallel  references, 
and  for  the  second  time  he  carefully  read  through  Walker's 
Pronouncing  Dictionary,  making,  as  before,  a  list  of  words  about 
which  he  felt  a  doubt  either  as  to  spelling  or  pronunciation. 
To  his  satisfaction  the  list  proved  less  numerous  than  at  the 
first  reading.  His  correction  of  the  references  in  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Bible  Society  led  to  the  colossal  undertakings  of  cor- 
recting the  errors  found  in  the  five  hundred  thousand  parallel 
passages  of  Bagster's  Comprehensive  Bible.  His  mastery  of 
Walker's  Dictionary,  and  especially  of  the  principles  of  the 
language  prefixed  to  that  work,  unquestionably  led  the  way  to 
the  invention  of  Phonography. 

It   was    with   great    surprise   that    we    received    tidings   of 


40  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Isaac's  marriage,  while  he  was  at  Barton,  to  the  widow  of  Mr. 
George  Holgate,  a  lady  of  nearly  twice  his  age.  Mr.  Holgate 
was  the  leading  lawyer  of  the  place  and  a  man  of  culture  and 
high  social  standing.  His  wife  was  of  good  birth,  of  fair  educa- 
tion, and  possessed  of  a  certain  suavity  of  manners  which  at 
that  period,  more  than  now,  distinguished  the  gentry  from  the 
trading  classes.  She  possessed  a  life  interest  in  a  fortune  of 
$25,000,  which,  during  her  life,  yielded  a  sufficient  income  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  household.  A  year  after  the  marriage 
Isaac  brought  her  to  our  Trowbridge  home,  and  I  well  remember 
that  we  were  all  impressed  with  her  lady-like  speech,  general 
bearing,  and  polished  manners,  as  compared  with  the  average 
deportment  of  our  more  Puritanical  social  stratum ;  but  those 
older  than  I  seemed  to  think  there  was  little  unity  of  feeling, 
either  on  the  mental  or  spiritual  plane,  between  Isaac  and  his 
chosen  partner. 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  correction  of  the  Bagster  Comprehensive 
Bible,  which  just  preceded  the  invention  of  Phonography, 
was  probably  one  of  the  most  laborious  of  literary  labors 
ever  voluntarily  undertaken  and  faithfully  executed,  purely  from 
"the  love  of  use,"  to  use  his  own  favorite  expression,  and  was 
quite  characteristic  of  his  studious,  energetic,  and  unselfish  nature. 
His  custom  had  been,  in  his  morning  and  evening  reading  of  the 
Bible,  to  refer  to  every  marginal  parallel  passage,  and  to  scan 
critically  the  accompanying  notes.  In  these  studies  he  had  dis- 
covered in  the  Bible  he  used,  published  by  the  British  Bible 
Society,  popularly  supposed  to  be  free  from  a  single  typographic 
error,  numerous  misprints  and  errors  in  the  marginal  references. 
These  identical  errors  he  found  were,  for  the  most  part,  repeated 
in  the  commentaries  of  Scott,  Henry,  and  Adam  Clarke,  and,  to 
his  still  greater  surprise,  he  found  many  of  them  copied  in  Bag- 
ster's  Comprehensive  Bible.  Isaac's  corrections  of  the  errors  in 
the  Bible  Society's  octave  edition  were  sent  to  the  Society's  head- 
quarters, in  London,  but  were  never  acknowledged,  though  the 
corrections  were  availed  of  in  subsequent  editions.  My  brother 
then  wrote  to  Mr.  Samuel  Bagster,  senior  member  of  the  well- 
known  Bagster's  Bible  publishing  house,  stating  his  discovery 
that  many  errors  in  the  Bible  Society's  edition  of  the  Scriptures 
were  repeated  in  the  Comprehensive,  and  added  (Barton-on-Hum- 
ber,  October  15,  1835),  "I  have  made  it  my  custom,  for  two  or 
three  years,  in  my  morning  and  evening  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, to  refer  to  every  parallel  place,  and  in  some  measure 
appreciate  the  value  of  the  plan.  If  you  would  like  to  place  a  copy 
of  your  Bible  under  my  care,  to  be  considered  your  property,  I 


42  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

would  make  a  constant  and  careful  use  of  it,  and  give  you  the 
benefit  of  the  corrections  or  mistakes  that  I  may  discover  on 
reading  it  through." 

Bagster's  Comprehensive  Bible,  the  standard  work  of  Bible 
students,  comprises  the  authorized  version  of  the  Scriptures  and 
a  compilation  of  the  references  and  parallel  passages  from  all 
preceding  Bible  commentators,  arranged  on  each  page  in  double 
columns  of  notes  and  parallel  references.  The  compilation  being 
made  from  the  latest  editions,  their  correctness  was  assumed,  as 
it  was  considered  too  herculean  a  task  to  verify  their  individual 
accuracy. 

Mr.  Bagster  acknowledged  Isaac's  letter  with  marked  court- 
esy, saying  that  he  contemplated  issuing  a  new  edition  of  the 
Comprehensive  Bible,  and  would  be  glad  if  he  could  secure  a 
revision  of  the  entire  annotations.  A  copy  of  the  Comprehen- 
sive was  dispatched  to  my  brother  by  the  first  stage-coach,  and  in 
a  few  days,  at  his  suggestion,  another  copy,  divided  into  seven 
parts,  stitched  in  paper  covers,  with  untrimmed  margins.  In 
these  parts,  which  lay  conveniently  on  the  table  during  examina- 
tion, the  errors  that  were  discovered  were  written,  and  as  each 
part  was  completed  it  was  returned  to  the  London  publisher. 
During  the  next  three  years  almost  every  moment  of  Isaac's  long 
days,  not  devoted  to  the  school  or  required  for  special  duties,  was 
spent  in  the  examination  and  revision  of  the  four  thousand  notes, 
the  five  hundred  thousand  parallel  passages,  the  extended  chron- 
ological tables,  and  the  tables  of  weights,  measures,  and  coins. 
Many  an  hour  did  Henry  and  I  sit  at  the  same  table,  morning  and 
evening,  quietly  reading,  or  scanning  our  lessons,  while  Isaac 
was  "at  work  on  his  Bible." 

For  the  purpose  of  speedy  reference  and  examination,  my 
brother  used  a  copy  of  Bagster's  small,  thin  octavo  polyglot  Bible, 
in  which  he  had  arranged  a  series  of  narrow  paper  strips,  pasted 
in  at  the  back  of  the  book,  and  projecting  half  an  inch  from  the 
front  margin.  These  strips,  arranged  one  under  the  other,  were 
inserted  from  the  top  front  down  towards  the  back,  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  book.  On  each  strip  was  written  the  book,  chapter, 
and  verse  at  which  that  particular  opening  of  two  pages  began 
and  ended.  Such  was  the  facility  with  which  Isaac  could  refer  to 
any  passage  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament, 'that  an  uninterrupted 
glide  of  the  thumb  and  fingers  would  enable  him  to  turn  the 


CORRECTION  OF  THE  COMPREHENSIVE  BIBLE.      43 

leaves  of  the  already  open  polyglot,  which  lay  upon  the  open 
pages  of  the  Comprehensive,  and  place  his  index  finger  on  any 
required  verse.  He  would,  after  a  quick  glance,  seize  the  strip 
which  was  nearest  the  required  passage  with  his  thumb  and  sec- 
ond finger,  thus  opening  the  book  and  turning  the  pages  to  the 
left.  If  the  required  passage  was  not  found  at  the  opening,  the 
remaining  fingers  would  slide  one,  two,  or  more  to  the  right  hand 
pages,  until  the  required  chapter  and  verse  were  in  view,  the 
forefinger  still  continuing  its  quick  glide  until  it  rested  on  the 
passage  of  which  he  was  in  search. 

The  corrections  and  additions  made  in  the  entire  work  were 
numbered  by  the  thousand.  Mr.  Bagster  generously  offered  to 
pay  any  sum  Isaac  might  designate  for  his  services,  but  he  would 
accept  nothing.  Generous,  enthusiastic  soul,  he  considered  the 
study  and  discipline  which  the  examination  had  given  him  a 
sufficient  reward !  Mr.  Bagster,  during  the  remainder  of  his  life, 
had  a  sincere  respect  for  my  brother,  and  when  the  corrected 
edition  of  the  Comprehensive  was  issued  from  the  press,  a  special 
copy,  with  extra  margin,  superbly  bound,  with  silver  plate 
inscription  and  inclosed  in  a  beautiful  casket,  was  sent  the  inde- 
fatigable corrector. 

On  beginning  the  revision  of  the  Comprehensive  Bible,  Isaac 
calculated  that  by  giving  daily  a  certain  number  of  hours,  seven 
days  in  the  week, — which,  with  his  methodical  life,  he  could 
confidently  venture  to  promise  himself  to  do, — he  could  com- 
plete the  revision  in  three  years.  The  work,  undertaken  in  the 
latter  part  of  October,  1835,  was  finished  in  August,  1838,  a  month 
or  two  earlier  than  he  had  assigned  for  its  completion.  He  gave 
at  least  five  thousand  hours  of  the  closest  mental  and  physical 
application  to  this  revision.  It  was  religiously  perused  every 
day  in  the  week  and  every  week  in  the  year.  A  holiday,  as  far 
as  I  remember,  was  never  taken,  and  if  an  occasional  interrup- 
tion occurred  by  the  stress  of  an  unexpected  duty,  the  lost  time 
was  made  up  by  extra  work  on  the  following  days.  On  its  com- 
pletion he  would  not  lessen  the  satisfaction  he  had  derived  from 
his  work  by  accepting  any  pecuniary  reward.  I  remember  his 
saying  to  a  friend,  who  expressed  great  surprise  that  he  had 
received  no  payment  for  his  long-continued  service,  "I  offered 
to  do  the  work  freely,  and,  of  course,  I  would  not  now  accept 
anything  for  it ;  it  has  been  great  satisfaction  and  a  benefit  to 


44 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


me;  but  now,  when  I  want  to  give  my  whole  attention  to  my 
phonetic  Shorthand,  I  am  only  too  grateful  that  it  is  completed." 
I  can  vividly  recall  my  school  days  at  this  period,  when  I 
lived  in  my  brother's  family  at  Wotton-under-Edge,  and  though 
now  sixty-five  }'ears  ago,  well  do  I  remember  how  exceedingly 
hard  his  Bible  revision  became  towards  its  close,  for  it  was  at 
this  period  that  the  phonographic  idea  had  taken  lodgment  in 
Isaac's  brain,  and  we  talked  of  nothing  else  on  our  way  to  and 
from  school,  and  in  our  occasional  morning  walks,  and  intense 
was  the  joy  of  my  brother  at  the  completion  of  his  long  task 
and  the  opportunity  it  afforded  him  to  give  his  time  and 
thoughts,  as  well  as  his  heart,  to  new  ideas  in  the  field  of 
experiment  and  usefulness  then  opening  up  to  him. 


A?TER  four  years'  residence  and  school  teaching  at  Barton, 
Isaac  Pitman  removed  to  \Votton-under-Edge,  in  Glou- 
cestershire. His  brother  Jacob  had  married,  and  settled 
in  that  beautiful  county  of  hills  and  dales.  Jacob's  wife  had 
been  a  governess  in  a  ladies'  seminary,  and  was,  in  many  ways, 
qualified  to  carry  out  her  ambition  to  establish  and  conduct  a 
young  ladies'  boarding  school  of  her  own.  It  happened  that 
an  uncle  of  the  lady  owned  a  very  charming  homestead  at  North 
Nibley,  Gloucestershire,  containing  several  acres  of  lawn,  gar- 
den, orchard  and  meadow,  which  he  offered  to  lease  to  the  young 
couple,  at  a  nominal  rent,  on  condition  of  their  settling  near 
him.  The  offer  was  gladly  accepted,  and  Jacob  and  his  wife 
were  able  to  carry  out  their  ideal  program.  The  recollection  of 
their  rural  paradise,  and  the  many  Saturday  holidays  my 
brother  Henry  and  I  spent  there  during  our  school-days  with 
Isaac,  with  a  three-mile  walk  over  country  roads  that  had  no 
single  foot  of  level  ground,  are  among  the  joyous  remembrances 
I  recall  of  my  boyhood.  The  wish  to  be  near  his  brother,  and 
the  desire  to  escape  the  severe  and  piercing  climate  of  Barton, 
with  its  northern  sea  breeze,  which  was  giving  Isaac  frequent 
coughs  and  colds,  together  with  the  offer  of  a  school  at  Wotton- 
under-Edge,  three  miles  from  Nibley,  were  sufficient  reasons  for 
Isaac's  removal  to  the  more  congenial  clime  and  lovely  scenic 
features  of  that  portion  of  Gloucestershire. 

45 


46  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Isaac  had  not  been  settled  at  Wotton-nnder-Edge  more  than 
a  year,  when  an  incident  occurred  which  changed  his  religious 
views,  and,  probably,  the  entire  religious  aspect  of  his  life.  On 
a  stage-coach  he  had  for  a  traveling  companion,  Mr.  J.  K.  Bragge, 
of  Clifton.  This  gentleman,  on  discovering  that  his  companion 
was  much  inclined  to  gravity  and  studious  reflection,  and  more 
engrossed  by  a  book  than  by  the  scenery  through  which  they  were 
passing,  inquired,  at  an  opportune  moment,  if  he  had  ever  read 
any  of  the  writings  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg.  Isaac  knew  only 
the  name,  but  admitted  that  he  had  imbibed  certain  prejudices 
against  the  mystic  writer  from  what  Wesley  had  written  of  him. 
The  conversation  during  the  ride  of  several  hours  was  sufficient 
to  interest  my  brother  in  the  new  doctrines.  A  package  of 
Swedenborg's  works,  formidable  quartos,  original  editions,  I 
remember,  was  in  a  few  days  forwarded  to  my  brother  by  his 
friendly  acquaintance,  and  a  correspondence  of  great  length 
ensued,  with  the  final  result  that  Isaac  became  an  ardent  receiver 
of  the  doctrines  and  teachings  of  the  Swedish  seer.  In  a  letter 
from  Isaac  Pitman,  inserted  in  the  "Intellectual  Repository," 
1837,  he  thus  states  his  convictions:  "I  consider  the  view  I  have 
of  the  spiritual  world,  of  the  internal  sense  of  God's  holy  word, 
and  of  the  person  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour  ('The  Almighty,' 
Rev.  i,  8,  etc.),  with  which  I  have  become  acquainted  through 
the  writings  of  the  New  Church,  as  similiar  to  that  arising  from 
a  curtain  being  raised,  and  I  am  now  able  to  see,  as  it  were,  an 
ocean  of  light." 

The  change  in  Isaac's  religious  views  occasioned  much 
comment,  misapprehension  and  harsh  judgment  in  the  Methodist 
community  to  which  he  was  attached,  and  in  which,  as  at  Barton, 
he  had  been  an  earnest  worker,  itinerant  preacher,  and  class 
leader.  Isaac's  enlightenment  and  spiritual  growth,  as  he 
regarded  it,  was,  by  his  religious  friends,  interpreted  as  spiritual 
backsliding,  and  he  was  disciplined  accordingly.  He  was  cited 
to  appear  before  the  trustees  of  the  church  to  answer  the  charge 
of  heresy.  The  presiding  elder  of  the  district  was  an  active 
little  man,  named  Barbour.  The  name  recurs  to  me  at  this 
moment,  seemingly  for  the  first  time  since  the  event,  which  took 
place  more  than  sixty-five  years  ago.  I  was  present  on  one  of 
the  three  evenings  devoted  to  the  religious  investigation.  After 
the  evening  wrangle  was  over,  I  remember  asking  my  brother,  in 


FIRST  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  NEW  AND   TRUE.          47 

my  simplicity,  "What  makes  Mr.  Barbour  so  cross?"     "Mr.  Bar- 
hour  is  not  angry,"  my  brother  replied,  with  a  smile,  "he  is  only 
very  earnest  to  make  it  appear  that  he  is  in  the  right  and  that  I 
am  in  the  wrong,  but  I  think  I  am  fortunate  in  seeing  things 
differently."     The  elders  of  the  church,  rinding  that  Isaac  could 
not  be  reclaimed,  suspended  his  work  in  the  church  and  ultimately 
expelled  him.     Some  of  the  more  narrow-minded  of  the  congre- 
gation, who  were  our  former  friends,  made  us  feel  that   heresy 
was  not  respectable,  but  an  offense  to  be  met  with  snubs  and 
slights ;     Isaac  did  not  seem  to  feel  it  in  that  way,  but  his  wife, 
Henry  and  I  were  often  made  uncomfortable  by  the  rebuffs  and 
insinuations  of  our  former  friends ;  but  these  little  persecutions 
were,  perhaps,  more  than  offset  by  the  cordial  sympathy  of  new 
friends  among  the  liberal-minded  people  of  the  town  and  neigh- 
borhood.     The    family    henceforward,  during    Isaac's   stay    at 
Wotton-under-Edge,  attended   the  Episcopal  church,  the  rector 
of  which,  Mr.  Perkins,  a  genial  and  scholarly  gentleman,  though 
feeling  no  attraction  for  Isaac's  religious  views,  showed    much 
respect   and    kindly    feeling  for   him  because  of  the   rancorous 
persecution  he  had  endured.     The  religious  ferment  did  not  stop 
with  the  church.     The  trustees  of  Isaac's  school  took  up  the 
matter,  and  decided  that  they  could  not  longer  regard  him  as  a 
fitting  instructor  of  the  public  school.     This  decision  proved  for- 
tunate for  my  brother,  who,  had  he  possessed  a  grain  of  worldly 
shrewdness,  would,  before    this,  have    "expelled"    himself    and 
opened  a  private  school  for  the  children  of  the  middle  and  pro- 
fessional class,  which  he  now  proceeded  to  do,  for   there  was 
great  need  in  the  town  for  such  a  school.     The  only  one  in  .the 
place  was  the  Free  Grammar  School,  in  which  twenty  youths, 
sons  of  the  trades-people,  clad  in   university  caps  and  flowing 
black    gowns    of    the    finest    West-of-England    cloth,  renewed 
annually,  were  instructed   in  the  classics,  and   little  else.     This 
school  was  an  example  of  England's  endowed   institutions  for 
the   education  of  a  limited  number  of  boys,  where  the  income 
from  the  original  gift  had  so  much  increased  by  the  growth  of 
population    and  commerce,  that   the   trustees  were  troubled   to 
devise   means   for   its  expenditure.     To  expand   the  school   by 
increasing  the  number  of  its  beneficiaries,  would  be  the  sugges- 
tion of  ordinary  common  sense,  but  from  the  British,  conserva- 
tive  point  of  view   this   would   have   been   revolutionary   and 


48  Si/?  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

unconstitutional !  Isaac's  school  proved  a  success  from  the  start, 
and  yielded  a  larger  income  than  the  position  he  had  been  forced 
to  resign. 

Before  my  brother  had  decided  to  what  Christian  ministra- 
tion he  would  temporarily  attach  himself,  he  chanced  to  be 
present  at  the  Congregational  church  in  the  town,  which  was 
founded  nearly  a  century  ago,  by  Roland  Hill,  a  dissenting 
minister  of  celebrity,  who  was  remarkable  for  his  eloquence  and 
eccentricities,  rather  than  for  devotional  fervor  or  erudition. 
On  the  occasion  referred  to,  the  minister  made  religious  heresy 
a  leading  feature  of  his  discourse,  and  said  that  among  the 
unpardonable  heresies — of  course  from  his  Congregational  point 
of  view — were  denial  of  the  Trinity  and  the  Atonement,  and 
added,  that  if  he  himself  held  such  unscriptural  views  as  he  had 
described  (and  somewhat  misrepresented),  he  should  expect  to 
be  hunted  out  of  the  town  like  a  mad  dog!  Here  was  an  instance 
of  the  stricken  deer,  religiously  viewed,  seeking  sanctuary,  and 
the  ecclesiastical  hunter  availing  himself  of  the  chance  to  inflict 
an  additional  wound! 

Another  step  in  Isaac's  development  took  place  while  living 
at  Wotton-under-Edge.  He  became  a  vegetarian,  not  for 
religious,  but  humanitarian  and  physiological  reasons.  After 
his  acceptance  of  the  New  Church  doctrines,  he  gradually  out- 
grew his  extreme  ascetic  notions.  He  no  longer  fasted  nor 
recommended  it,  and,  judging  by  his  countenance,  a  certain  pious 
gravity  which  before  marked  his  features, — probably  an  expres- 
sion due  to  the  mists  and  clouds  of  his  religious  belief, — gave 
way  to  placidity  and  not  unfrequent  gleams  of  facial  sunshine. 
He  had  become  acquainted  with  a  singular  family,  living  a  few 
miles  from  Wotton-under-Edge,  consisting  of  two  maiden  sisters, 
somewhat  past  middle  life.  They  were  people  of  intelligence  and 
wealth,  and  their  country  seat,  Ebworth  Park,  was  of  great 
extent  and  beauty.  They  lived  quiet,  useful  and  charitable 
lives,  and  were  noted  among  the  country  people  for  the  simplicity 
of  their  manners  and  their  mystic  faith;  but  their  crowning 
oddity  was,  "they  would  not  eat  meat!"  That  people  rich 
enough  to  buy  flesh  meat  would  not  eat  it,  was  deemed  unac- 
countable in  rational  folk,  and  probably  was  the  only  mysticism 
about  these  sweet  and  remarkable  people.  It  must  have  been 
shortly  after  Isaac's  first  acquaintance  with  this  family  that  an 


F/RST  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  NEW  AND   TRUE.          49 

incident  occurred  which  led  to  his  instantaneous  conversion  to 
vegetarianism.  A  live  chicken  had  been  sent  to  the  house, 
which  was  to  be  served  for  dinner.  The  housekeeper,  an  old 
and  valued  servant  of  the  family,  who  had  been  brought  by 
Mrs.  Pitman  all  the  way  from  their  Lincolnshire  home,  would 
have  "nothing  to  do  with  killing  fowls;  no  indeed!"  She  was 
an  example,  of  the  old  style  of  domestic  servant,  always  yielding 
most  faithful  and  willing  obedience  in  the  line  of  recognized 
duty,  but  sturdily  independent  outside  of  that  limit.  An  appeal 
was  then  made  to  Isaac  to  undertake  the  duty,  on  which  he  and 
I  descended  to  the  area,  a  small  stone-paved  yard,  on  a  level 
with  the  basement  kitchen.  Isaac,  hatchet  in  hand,  laid  the 
victim's  head  on  the  block,  and  a  cruel  blow  struck  off  what 
Isaac  regarded  as  the  seat  of  life  in  the  bird;  but  as  the  chicken's 
brains  are  not  all  in  the  skull,  the  headless  bird,  escaping  from 
his  grasp,  fluttered  excitedly  all  round  the  area.  This  was  so 
unexpected  and  shocking  a  sight  that  the  bird  had  to  be  caught 
and  a  little  more  of  its  head  chopped  off.  To  a  nature  as  sensi- 
tive as  Isaac's,  this  experience  was  sufficient  to  make  him 
instantly  resolve  that,  henceforth,  he  would  neither  sacrifice  life 
nor  partake  of  the  body  when  sacrificed — a  resolution  adhered  to 
for  the  remaining  sixty  years  of  his  life. 

Of  the  rigid  abstemiousness  and  fasting  which  distinguished 
Isaac's  life  at  Barton,  I  know  only  from  the  talk  of  the  family,  and 
from  our  home  practice  of  a  Friday's  fast,  which  Isaac,  while  at 
Barton,  induced  father  and  mother  to  adopt,  and  in  which  we 
children,  I  fear,  unwillingly  participated.  But  at  Wotton-under- 
Edge  we  knew  nothing  of  it.  We  ate  each  day  three  meals  of 
savory  food,  more  varied  and  delicately  prepared  than  we  boys 
had  been  accustomed  to  at  home,  but  after  the  chicken  incident 
neither  Isaac,  Henry  nor  I  ate  anything  for  which  life  had  to  be 
sacrificed.  Mrs.  Pitman  and  Hannah,  our  housekeeper,  contin- 
ued to  eat  meat,  and  to  take  their  tea  and  coffee.  Isaac,  Henry, 
and  I,  for  breakfast  and  tea,  the  last  meal  of  the  day,  drank  only 
sweetened  hot  water  and  milk.  Isaac,  I  believe,  was  considerably 
past  sixty  years  of  age  before  he  indulged  in  tea  or  coffee.  It 
was  with  a  surprised  smile  I  received  the  news,  when  he  was 
between  sixty  and  seventy,  that  his  custom  was,  at  early  rising,  to 
prepare  a  cup  of  coffee  over  a  spirit  lamp  in  his  bedroom,  and 
partake  of  it  before  commencing  his  day's  work. 


50  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Isaac  Pitman's  reception  of  the  New  Church  doctrines 
(1836-7),  his  expulsion  from  the  Methodist  church,  and  his  coinci- 
dent expulsion  from  the  mastership  of  the  public  school,  were 
the  factors  that,  primarily,  led  to  his  future  specific  career.  The 
establishment  of  his  private  school,  attended,  as  before  intimated, 
by  the  children  of  a  higher  social  and  intellectual  grade  than 
those  he  had  previously  taught,  led  to  his  teaching  Shorthand  to 
a  class  of  his  more  advanced  boys.  My  brother  probably  never 
thought  of  teaching  the  art  to  the  children  who  attended  the  pub- 
lic school,  but  he  no  sooner  began  instructing  pupils  to  whom 
Shorthand  might  be  useful,  than  he  gladly  availed  himself  of  the 
opportunity  of  including  it  among  the  regular  branches  of  study. 
The  introduction  of  the  art  into  the  school,  and  my  brother's 
earnest  desire  to  see  Shorthand  more  generally  practised,  induced 
him  to  prepare  a  small  treatise,  explanatory  of  Taylor's  system, 
which  both  he  and  I  used,  sufficient  for  self-instruction,  and  which 
he  thought  might  be  sold  at  the  low  price  of  threepence.  When 
the  manuscript  was  completed,  he  sent  it  to  Mr.  Samuel  Bagster, 
asking  if  he  could  arrange  for  its  London  publication.  Nothing 
could  more  clearly  show  the  respect  in  which  my  brother  was 
held  by  this  gentleman,  the  head  of  one  of  the  leading  and  most 
exclusive  publishing  houses  of  London,  than  his  instant  and 
friendly  compliance,  accompanied  by  the  suggestion  that  the  little 
work  should  bear  the  imprint  of  their  establishment.  Mr.  Bagster, 
however,  with  a  publisher's  instinct,  submitted  the  manuscript  to 
a  professional  reporter,  who,  after  examining  it,  shrewdly  wrote, 
"The  system  Mr.  Pitman  has  sent  is  already  in  the  market.  If 
he  will  compile  a  new  system,  I  think  he  will  be  more  likely  to 
succeed  in  his  object  to  popularize  Shorthand."  Teaching  the  art 
to  a  class  of  boys  had  proved  an  effectual  eye-opener  to  the  imper- 
fections and  shortcomings  of  what  was  then  regarded  as  the  best 
system  of  Shorthand  known,  and  no  sooner  had  Isaac  received  the 
practical  advice  which  accompanied  the  returned  manuscript, 
than  he  resolutely  set  to  work  to  improve  on  Taylor.  And  now 
came  the  opportunity  to  use  his  knowledge  of  what  were  the  act- 
ual elements  of  the  language,  which  he  had  gained  by  his  diligent 
study  of  Walker's  Dictionary.  Previous  authors  of  Shorthand 
said,  "Write  by  sound,  drop  silent  and  useless  letters ;"  but  the 
Roman  alphabet,  on  which  all  the  old  S3rstems  were  based,  did  not 
afford  the  means  of  so  doing,  in  that  there  were  many  sounds  in 


FIRST  GLIMPSES  OF  THE  NEW  AND   TRUE. 


the  language  for  which  no  Shorthand  signs  were  provided.  Isaac's 
first  improvement  was  to  pair  the  consonants  p  b,  t  d,f  v,  etc., 
representing  the  pair  by  like  signs,  but  using  a  light  stroke  for 
the  first  or  whispered  sound,  and  a  slightly  heavier  or  shaded 
stroke  for  the  corresponding  vocal  sound.  Signs  were  also  pro- 
vided for  sh  as  in  fish,  zh  as  in  measure,  th  as  in  bathe,  as  distinct 
from  th  in  bath ;  also  for  ng  in  hang,  as  distinct  from  that  in  hinge 
etc.;  for  none  of  which  sounds  had  signs  been  provided  in  pre- 
vious Shorthand  schemes.  A  new,  extended,  and  sequential 
scheme  of  vowels  took  the  place  of  the  old  and  imperfect  a,  e,  i,  o, 
tt  arrangement  of  the  Roman  alphabet ;  that  is,  the  new  system 
did  what  any  consistent  alphabet  must  do — provided  signs  for  all 
the  vowels  of  the  language  as  shown  in  the  following  table : 


ee  as  in  meet; 
''      a  as  in  mate; 

ah  as  va.  father; 
•  i 
i     au  as  in  naught; 

.! 
i     o  as  in  note; 


i  as  in  mit; 
e  as  in  met; 
a  as  in  fat; 
o  as  in  not; 
u  as  in  nut; 


oo  as  \nfood;  -      oo  as  in  foot. 

In  addition  to  these  simple  vowels,  signs  were  provided  for  the 
diphthongs,  i  as  in  fight,  oi  as  in  boy,  ow  as  in  cow,  and  u  as  in 
beauty  as  distinct  from  that  in  but. 

How  ludicrous,  from  the  phonographer's  standpoint,  seems  the 
rule  laid  down  in  the  old  systems  of  Shorthand,  "Write  by  sound," 
when  the  -glaring  insufficiency  of  their  alphabets  is  compared 
with  the  scheme  which  Isaac  Pitman  first  suggested  in  his  little 
treatise  which  was  ushered  into  the  world  under  the  title  of 
"Stenographic  Soundhand."  But  the  strange  hesitancy  with 
which  the  phonetic  principle  was  at  first  accepted  by  the  author, 
and  his  failure  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  a  completed  vowel 
scale,  and  especially  the  pairing  of  the  consonants,  is  curiously 
shown  by  the  fact  that  in  his  first  published  scheme  the  conso- 
nants of  his  enlarged  and  systematic  alphabet  were  not  presented 
phonetically,  but  alphabetically,  in  Romanic  disorder,  6,  d,f,  g,  etc., 
thus  making  concession  to  custom  and  general  ignorance,  and  in 
a  great  measure  concealing  the  philosophical  order  he  had  dis- 
covered and,  naturally,  would  have  been  proud  to  display. 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  first  attempt  to  improve  and  popularize 
Shorthand,  and  to  realize  his  wish  to  bring  it  within  the 
reach  of  every  schoolboy,  was  the  publication  of  his  "Steno- 
graphic Soundhand"  in  1837,  the  price  of  which  was  fourpence. 
Before  that  time,  with  the  exception  of  a  pirated  edition  of  Tay- 
lor's system,  which  was  sold  for  three  shillings  and  sixpence, 
there  had  been  no  leading  system  of  Shorthand  issued  in  Eng- 
land at  less  than  half  a  guinea  or  nearly  three  dollars.  Isaac's 
booklet  consisted  of  two  pages  of  engraving  and  twelve  pages  of 
letter  press.  Three  thousand  copies  were  printed,  but  it  scarcely 
paid  its  expenses,  for  most  copies  were  given  away.  It  was  a  very 
unpretentious  effort  at  book-making.  The  twelve  explanatory 
pages,  without  even  a  title  page,  were  placed  inside  the  double- 
page  engraving  and  stitched  in  a  dull  blue  "bonnet-board"  cover, 
on  the  outside  of  which  a  white  label  was  pasted  containing 
the  title : 

STENOGRAPHIC  SOUNDHAND, 

By  ISAAC  PITMAN, 

LONDON. 
SAMUEL  BAGSTER, 

At  his  Warehouse  for  Bibles,  Testaments,  Prayer  Books, 
Lexicons,  etc.,  in  Ancient  and  Modern  Languages, 

No.  15  Paternoster  Row. 

Also  Sold  by  the  Author,  Wotton-under-Edge, 

and  by  all  booksellers. 

Price,  fourpence. 

This  literary  bantling,  in  its  uncouth  dress,  the  stitching  and 
label-pasting  of  which  were  done  by  us  boys  in  his  school,  was  so 
utterly  unlike  anything  else  sold  in  the  aristocratic  establishment 
of  Samuel  Bagster,  that  no  wonder  many  stories  were  told,  by 
inquirers  for  the  little  book,  of  the  undisguised  contempt  with 

53 


54  SJ&  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

which  the  clerks  in  the  store  treated  the  literary  waif.  But  these 
scornful  young  men  probably  did  not  know  that  Isaac  Pitman  had 
earned  respectful  consideration  from  their  firm,  by  years  of  gra- 
tuitous labor,  in  correcting  their  fine  and  costly  Comprehensive 
Bible,  the  special  publication,  which,  more  than  any  other,  gave 
character  and  prestige  to  their  establishment ;  still  less  did  they 
imagine  that  this  despised  little  scraplet  was  the  forerunner  of  a 
great  national  benefaction;  that  they  might  even  live,  to  see  the 
time  when  millions  of  Phonographic  instruction  books  would 
have  been  sold  and  studied;  that  the  art  would  spread  and  be 
used  wherever  the  English  language  was  spoken;  that  tens  of 
thousands  of  intelligent  people  would  make  a  daily  use  of  it,  and 
tens  of  thousands  more  would  earn  their  living  by  its  daily  prac- 
tise ;  that  in  the  distant  future  the  Queen  of  the  realm  would 
recognize  its  utility,  and  confer  the  honor  of  Knighthood  on  its 
inventor;  still  less  could  they  imagine  that  the  time  would  ever 
come  when  this  attempt  to  improve  Shorthand  would  become  so 
interwoven  into  the  daily  commercial,  literary,  legal,  and  political 
work  of  the  world  that,  were  it,  by  any  possibility,  withheld  from 
use,  even  for  a  single  day,  the  progress  of  civilization  would  be 
grievously  hindered. 

After  nearly  three  years  of  constant  experimenting,  in  which 
he  habitually  conferred  with  me,  and  teaching  the  system  to 
about  twenty  of  the  more  advanced  boys  in  his  academy  at  Wot- 
ton-under-Edge,  where  I  was  his  assistant,  and  afterwards  at  Bath, 
to  which  city  Isaac  removed  in  the  summer  of  1839,  the  new, 
enlarged,  and  more  complete  system  was  published,  under  the 
title  of  Phonography.  The  scheme  was  first  presented  on  an  elab- 
orately engraved  steel  plate,  the  price  of  which  was  one  penny. 
But  the  enthusiasm  of  the  author  did  not  stop  here.  The  mar- 
gin of  the  engraved  sheet  contained  the  offer:  "Any  person  may 
receive  lessons  from  the  author,  by  post,  gratuitously.  Each  les- 
son must  be  enclosed  in  a  paid  letter.  The  pupil  can  write  about 
a  dozen  verses  from  the  Bible,  leaving  spaces  between  the  lines 
for  the  corrections."  The  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  Isaac  Pitman's 
career  as  author,  teacher,  editor,  lithographic-transfer  writer,  typic 
experimenter,  printer,  and  publisher, — and,  in  justice  to  his  varied 
labors  and  industry,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  aptitude 
necessary  to  insure  success  in  each  phase  of  his  phonetic  labors 
was  distinct,  one  from  the  other, —  is  probably  without  parallel, 


AS  INVENTOR.  55 

in  literary  or  inventive  history.  In  an  analysis  of  my  brother's 
controlling  motive,  it  is  difficult  to  determine  whether  altruism, 
enthusiasm,  the  assumption  of  a  special  mission,  or  the  natural 
impulse  of  an  inventive  mind,  was  the  leading  incentive  in  carry- 
ing him  through  his  sixty  years  of  unremitting  labor,  thirty  years 
of  which  were  spent  under  the  benumbing  influences  of  restricted 
means,  akin  to  actual  poverty. 

The  improved  Phonography  was  ushered  into  existence  in 
January,  1840,  as  twin  sister  to  England's  new  Penny  Postal 
Law.  The  agitation  for  cheap  postage  throughout  Great  Britain 
began  soon  after  the  publication  of  Stenographic  Soundhand.  It 
was  in  1837  that  Roland  Hill's  pamphlet  appeared,  urging  the 
practicability  and  advantages  of  a  uniform  penny  rate  of  postage 
throughout  Great  Britain,  on  letters  under  half  an  ounce.  The 
abiding  hope  and  faith  that  this  beneficent  project  would  be  suc- 
cessful determined  the  form  of  publication  for  the  new  and 
improved  scheme  of  Phonography,  and  though  its  publication 
was  delayed  some  months,  waiting  for  the  passage  of  the  postal 
law,  when  the  act  was  passed  and  the  author  was  able  to  send  his 
whole  system,  together  with  explanatory  and  recommendatory 
notices,  to  any  part  of  the  Kingdom  for  one  penny,  he  availed 
himself  of  its  privileges  with  the  greatest  industry.  One  of  his 
first  efforts  to  bring  his  new  scheme  into  notice  was  sending  six 
copies  of  his  plate  to  every  school  teacher  in  Gloucestershire  and 
Somersetshire,  begging  the  recipient  to  accept  one  and  distribute 
the  remaining  copies  to  such  as  would  be  likely  to  be  interested 
in  the  study  of  Shorthand. 

The  present  generation,  who  have  grown  accustomed  to  the 
privilege  and  necessity  of  cheap  postage,  and  who  can  now  send 
a  letter  of  double  the  weight  of  the  English  limit,  and  ten  times 
the  distance  possible  in  the  British  Isles,  for  a  "penny,"  will  be 
interested  by  the  reminder  that,  little  more  than  half  a  century 
ago,  the  average  postage  on  a  single  letter  was  nearly  twenty 
cents.  A  "single"  letter  had  to  be  written  on  one  sheet,  without 
regard  to  its  size,  but  any  inclosure,  however  trifling,  doubled  the 
postage.  Envelopes  were  unknown.  I  very  distinctly  remem- 
ber that  the  letters  of  my  brother  Isaac,  that  reached  home  from 
Barton-on-Humber,  were  uniformly  written,  with  great  minute- 
ness and  care,  on  the  largest  sized  sheets  of  folded  foolscap  paper, 
and  it  is  on  record  that  one  of  his  letters  to  a  friend,  on  a  contro- 


56  S/tf  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

versial  subject,  contained  more  words  than  the  entire  Gospel  of 
Matthew.  When  cheap  postage  was  first  agitated,  so  Utopian  did 
the  project  appear  to  Lord  Lichfield,  then  Postmaster-General, 
that  he  declared  "that  of  all  visionary  schemes  he  had  ever 
heard,  this  was  the  most  extravagant."  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
scouted  the  proposed  reduction  of  postal  charges  as  "undesirable 
and  absurd."  To  effectually  carry  out  the  new  postal  scheme, 
the  government  offered  a  prize  of  two  hundred  pounds  for  the 
best  method  of  collecting  the  pence  for  the  prepaid  letters.  My 
brother  was  one  of  the  competitors,  and  his  practical  mind  sug- 
gested the  very  device  that  experience  has  shown  to  be  best. 
His  proposition  ran:  "Let  plates  be  engraved  in  small  squares  of 
an  inch  space,  the  plates  being  twenty  inches  by  twelve,  making 
240  squares,  the  price  of  which,  at  one  penny  a  stamp  when 
struck  off  on  paper,  will  be  one  pound.  The  stamps  will  become 
equivalent  to  the  current  coin  of  the  realm,  and  remittances  of 
small  amounts  might  be  made  in  them."  He  further  recom- 
mended,— and  this  was  the  unlucky  stroke  of  economy  that 
proved  his  undoing, — that  the  stamps  be  used  for  sealing  the  let- 
ters or  envelope.  The  inconvenience  of  cancelling  the  stamp, 
when  affixed  at  the  back  of  the  letter,  gave  the  much  coveted 
prize  to  another  competitor,  who  repeated  Isaac's  idea,  but  with  the 
suggestion  that  the  stamps  be  affixed  on  the  face  of  the  letter,  at 
the  upper  right  hand  corner,  as  is  the  convenient  practise  of  today. 
An  added  and  personal  interest  is  attached  to  the  beneficent 
labors  of  the  great  postal  reformer,  Sir  Roland  Hill,  from  the  fact 
that  his  father,  Thomas  Wright  Hill,  who  had  been  the  head  of  a 
large  private  academy  at  Tottenham,  in  which  his  son  Roland  had 
been  his  assistant,  was  an  ardent  friend  of  the  Phonetic  reform. 
At  the  termination  of  a  four  months'  course  of  teaching  by  my 
brother  Joseph  and  myself,  in  Birmingham,  in  1844,3  public  pho- 
nographic festival  was  held,  at  which  Thomas  Wright  Hill  pre- 
sided, and  made  an  admirable  address,  in  which,  speaking  as  a  life- 
long educator,  he  strongly  urged  the  necessity  and  importance 
of  a  reform  of  English  spelling,  regarding  it  less  as  an  innovation 
than  a  restoration,  which  would  prove  of  immense  educational 
value.  Isaac  Pitman  was  present  at  the  festive  gathering,  and 
publicly  congratulated  his  brothers  on  the  result  of  their  labors  in 
Birmingham,  where,  by  four  months'  instruction,  many  hundreds 
of  intelligent  people  had  become  enthusiastic  phonographers. 


AS  INVENTOR.  57 

The  phonetic  system  of  writing,  developed  mainly  through 
the  labors  of  Isaac  Pitman,  may  be  regarded  both  as  a  discovery 
and  an  invention.  While  no  claim  can  be  made  that  he  was  the 
discoverer  of  the  true  principles  of  alphabetic  representation,  or 
was  sole  contriver  of  the  first  philosophic  scheme  of  brief  writing, 
it  is,  however,  quite  fair  to  claim  that  his  sixty  years  of  assiduous 
labor  brought  system  and  order  out  of  the  previously  existing 
chaos ;  and  that  he  originated  and  pioneered  the  movement  that 
gave  to  the  English-speaking  race  its  first  practical  scheme  of 
philosophic  Shorthand ;  and  that  he  labored  with  more  untiring- 
devotion  to  pave  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  a  rational,  typic 
orthography  than  any  who  had  preceded  him.  Phonetics  as  a 
science,  and  Phonetic  Shorthand  and  Phonotypy  as  arts,  had  only 
an  embryotic  existence  prior  to  the  labors  of  Isaac  Pitman.  A 
volume  might  be  filled  with  a  narrative  of  attempts  to  construct 
Stenographic  systems  of  writing,  which,  judged  by  the  knowledge 
and  requirements  of  today,  would  be  a  record  of  deficiencies  and 
inconsistencies  that  would  be  interesting  chiefly  as  showing  their 
shortcomings  and  crudities.  These  schemes  had  their  use  in 
preparing  the  way  for  Phonography,  but  they  were,  without 
exception,  so  insufficient  as  schemes  of  alphabetic  writing,  and 
so  inadequate  and  complex  as  a  means  of  verbatim  reporting, 
that  only  those  of  exceptional  endowment,  great  perseverance 
and  extraordinary  memory  could  so  far  master  their  difficulties  and 
shortcomings  as  to  make  practical  use  of  any  of  them.  Another 
record  might  show  the  attempts  that  have  been  made  towards  a 
true  alphabetic  standard  as  applied  to  the  printed  language. 
This  would  be  a  narrative  of  imperfect  investigations,  incorrect 
conclusions,  and  a  strange  disregard  of  the  demands  of  the 
scholar  and  the  practical  requirements  ot  the  typemaker,  the 
printer,  and  the  reader.  These  attempts  at  alphabetic  reform 
were  however  of  great  value,  but  they  were  suggestions  rather 
than  completed  schemes,  and  as  substitutes  for  the  existing 
method  were  far  too  imperfect  to  be  generally  accepted  and  too 
unphilosophic  to  survive. 

Isaac  Pitman  was  the  first  to  devise  a  practical  scheme  of 
writing  based  upon  a  natural  classification  of  the  elementary 
sounds  of  language,  using  for  their  representation  the  briefest 
geometric  signs  that  were  in  natural  correspondence  with  the 
sounds  they  were  employed  to  represent.  His  scheme  was  the 


58  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

first  that  was  philosophic,  facile,  and  brief.  He  was  the  first  to 
recognize  and  harmonize  the  natural  laws  of  language,  and  of 
graphic  forms  best  adapted  for  their  visual  representation ;  that 
is,  in  recognizing  the  correspondence  between  classes  and  groups 
of  sounds,  and  the  geometric  signs  that,  naturally,  would  most 
appropriately  represent  them  on  paper.  He  was  first  to  recog- 
nize that  the  organs  of  speech  were  products  of  nature,  and 
could  not  be  changed,  and  that  geometric  lines  were  entities 
that  could  not  be  altered  or  increased,  but  that  human  language 
was  artificial,  being  a  product  of  civilization  ;  therefore  there  was 
a  point  at  which  a  strictly  philosophic  correspondence  between 
signs  and  sounds  must  yield  to  expediency — that  is,  to  the  neces- 
sities of  the  English  language  in  particular.  How  appropriately 
and  admirably  this  necessity  is  met,  is  known  to  every  phonog- 
rapher.  Like  sounds  are  represented  by  like  signs,  as  far  as 
practicable;  the  briefest  signs  are  used  to  represent  the  most 
frequent  sounds,  and  less  facile  signs  are  used  for  the  representa- 
tion of  rarer  sounds.  Phonography  is  unlike  and  superior  to 
any  previous  system  of  Shorthand,  in  that  it  was  the  first  to 
recognize  and  respect  the  linguistic  and  grammatical  construction 
of  the  language,  by  providing  not  only  for  its  single,  but  for  its 
double  and  treble  consonants,  and  its  groups  of  sounds,  used  in 
its  frequently-recurring  consonantal  combinations,  all  of  which  are 
provided  for,  according  to  their  relative  frequency,  by  a  scheme 
of  easily-written  appendages, — consisting  of  circles,  hooks,  and 
loops, —  so  that  two,  three,  four,  and  even  ten  and  eleven,  con- 
sonants can  be  expressed  with  distinctness  by  a  single  inflection 
of  the  pen.  Systems  of  Shorthand,  previous  to  Phonography, 
provided  only  a  set  of  signs  adapted  to  the  consonants  of  the 
Roman  alphabet,  and  with  that  they  stopped,  and  any  systematic 
scheme  of  initial  and  final  appendages  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  the  language,  such  as  is  so  admirably  worked  out  in  Phonog- 
raphy, was  quite  unknown.  To  stop  short  with  an  alphabet  that 
provided  little  beyond  substitutes  for  the  consonants  of  the 
alphabet,  was  found  adequate  to  the  representation  of  but  a  frac- 
tion of  the  simpler  words  of  the  language.  Difficult  and  oft- 
recurring  words  were  provided  for  by  symbolic  or  arbitrary 
marks  or  contractions,  which  had  to  be  constantly  augmented  by 
the  reporter  to  meet  the  deficiencies  of  his  stenographic  scheme 
The  notes  of  a  reporter  would,  of  course,  be  illegible  to  all  save  to 


slS  INVENTOR.  59 

the  writer  himself,  and  the  transcription  of  his  notes  by  another, 
as  is  now  so  frequently  done,  was  a  convenience  unknown  prior 
to  the  invention  of  Phonography. 

The  geometric  forms  that  are  available  as  signs  for  sounds, 
consist  only  of  a  right  line  and  a  curve,  the  latter  struck  in  an 
evolute  and  an  involute  direction,  and  to  be  entirely  legible 
they  can  be  used  in  only  a  very  limited  number  of  directions, 
namely,  as  a  horizontal,  a  vertical,  and  an  oblique  line  to  the  right 
and  left,  midway  between  an  upright  and  a  horizontal  line.  But 
the  inventor  of  Phonography  found  that,  in  actual  practise,  a 
stroke  a  full  eighth  of  an  inch  in  length,  —  the  normal  or  standard 
size,  —  could,  without  danger  of  illegibility,  be  made  half-length 
and  also  double-length,  when  used  to  represent  an  added  sound 
or  sounds  with  which  the  primary  sound  naturally  and  custom- 
arily combined.  The  available  stenographic  material  furnished 
by  a  right  and  a  curved  line  was  thus  invested  with  a  three-fold 
power.  It  was  also  found  that  the  signs  had  a  two-fold  value 
when  made  light,  and  when  shaded,  that  is,  slightly  thickened. 
This  fact  was  availed  of  by  the  inventor  to  distinguish  the  two 
classes  of  consonant  sounds,  the  light  strokes  being  used  to 
represent  whispered  consonants,  and  the  shaded  signs  to  indicate 
their  corresponding  voiced  sounds.  The  two  classes  of  signs, 
right  lines  and  curves,  were  employed  with  nice  discrimination, 
in  that  the  inventor  used  straight  lines  to  represent  the  explosive 
sounds,  as/,  /,  ch,  k,  etc.,  and  when  shaded,  their  corresponding 
vocals,  3,  d,j,  g,  etc.; 

\\  II  //         __ 

p  b  td         chj         k    / 

The  curves  were  employed  with  equal  uniformity  to  repre- 
sent the  continuant  sounds; 

VV          ((          )) 

f  r  thtz         s  2. 


With  these  sounds  the  regular  pairing  of  consonants,  as 
whispers  and  vocals,  stops  ;  and  coincidentally  a  regular  pairing 
of  available  signs  is  exhausted  ;  this,  therefore,  is  the  point  at 
which  philosophic  order  yields  to  expediency,  and  to  the  special 
requirements  of  English  speech.  L,  r,  m,  n,  and  ng,  have  no 


60  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

corresponding  whispered  sounds  in  English,  but  being  of  fre- 
quent occurence,  are  represented  by  the  facile  and  convenient 
signs ; 

/        7*  m  n  ng 

The  coalescents,  u>  and  y,  are  sounds  ranking  midway 
between  vowels  and  consonants,  being  more  obstructed  than 
vowels  and  less  so  than  consonants.  Being  vocal  sounds  they 
are  represented  by  the  shaded  signs ; 

s     r 


The  aspirate  h,  an  unobstructed,  audible  whisper,  is  heard 
in  English  speech  preceding  any  and  all  of  the  vowels,  as  well 
as  the  coalescents  w  and  y.  Its  actual  sound  depends  on  the 
vowel  it  precedes,  for  it  is  an  audible  breathing  through  the 
position  of  the  vocal  organs  assumed  to  pronounce  the  vowel 
or  coalescent  that  follows  it.  Though  less  of  a  sound  than  a 
vowel,  it  needs  a  stroke  or  consonantal  representation,  as  it  is 
frequently  used  both  preceded  and  followed  by  one  or  more 
vowels,  (as  in  Ohio),  and  no  other  simpler  or  more  convenient 
sign  remains  than  h  f . 

A  brief  and  philosophic  Stenography,  as  to  its  consonants, 
is.  thus  based  on  the  employment  of 

1.  Straight  and  Curved  Line,s, 

2.  Light  and  Shaded, 

3.  Of  Three  Lengths, 

4.  Written    in    Three    Positions,  with    respect   to  the 

base   line,  struck    in  Horizontal,  Vertical,  and 

two  Oblique  directions. 

These  signs  are  derived  from  the  Square  and  Circle,  shown 
in  the  following  diagrams,  which  give  all  the  geometrical  signs 
that  are  practical  for  brief,  legible,  and  facile  writing. 


The  middle  lines  in  the  diagrams  show  the  relative  length 


AS  INVENTOR. 


6r 


of  the  phonographic  letters,  the  double  and  half-lengths  being 
used  to  represent  added  sounds. 

The  following  diagram  shows  that  each  simple  character 
may  have  an  initial  and  a  final  hook;  each  character  also  admits, 
as  an  appendage,  an  initial  and  final  circle,  loop,  and  an  enlarged 
hook.  Each  sign  has  a  three-fold  value  according  to  its  length, 
and  a  three-fold  value  as  to  its  position  with  reference  to  the 
base  line  of  writing. 


It  will  be  thus  seen  that  the  elementary  sounds  of  language 
being  discovered,  classified,  and  named,  the  problem  was  the 
most  practicable  adaptation  of  signs  for  their  representation, 
having  reference  to  the  nature  of  the  sounds  and  their  relative 
frequency  in  speech.  These  were  the  problems  that  Isaac 
Pitman  and  his  army  of  coadjutors,  the  wide  world  over,  helped 
to  work  out  in  sixty  years  of  experimenting. 

The  tables  following  this  chapter  are  illustrations  of  the 
three  stages  of  phonographic  evolution;  showing  the  "Steno- 
graphic Sound-Hand"  of  1837;  the  fuller,  but  incomplete,  and, 
from  to-day's  standpoint,  the  mistaken  development  of  "Phonog- 
raphy" of  1840,  and  the  fully  developed  "Phonography"  of  today. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  history  of  Shorthand,  from 
the  days  of  Elizabeth,  will  see  in  Isaac  Pitman's  first  scheme  a 
great  improvement  upon  previous  systems  of  brief  writing, 
while  those  whose  judgment  of  what  a  philosophic  Shorthand 
should  be  is  based  upon  a  knowledge  of  the  comparatively 
perfect  Phonography  of  today,  will  be  amazed  and  amused  at  the 
crudity  of  the  author's  first  embryotic  attempt. 


62  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

It  is  a  curious  incident  in  Stenographic  history,  that  the 
exact  order  of  Isaac  Pitman's  simple- vowel  scheme,  and  to  a 
great  extent  the  pairing  of  the  consonants,  was  anticipated  in 
one  system  of  Shorthand,  namely,  that  by  Holdsworth  and 
Aldridge,  joint  authors  of  "Natural  Shorthand,"  published  in 
1766.  Isaac  Pitman  was  unaware  of  the  existence  of  this  system, 
and  did  not  become  acquainted  with  it  till  many  years  after  he 
had  re-discovered  the  natural  order  as  well  as  the  best  represen- 
tation of  the  sounds  of  speech,  as  presented  in  Phonography. 
We  have  special  reason  for  referring  to  this  interesting  system, 
because  we  ourselves  did  scant  justice  to  the  authors  in  our 
"History  of  Shorthand"  (1857).  At  that  time  we  had  not  seen  a 
copy  of  the  rare  and  beautifully-engraved  original  work,  and 
wrote  from  information  received  second-hand.  It  was  the  first 
brief  system  of  writing  in  which  the  phonetic  principle  and  a 
full  alphabet  were  recognized;  but  as  a  practical  Shorthand,  it 
was  an  entire  failure,  in  consequence  of  the  ill-adaptation  of  signs 
to  represent  the  sounds  of  the  language,  and  its  failure  to  pro- 
vide for  the  double  and  treble  consonants,  and  the  frequently 
recurring  initial  and  terminal  sounds  peculiar  to  English  speech, 
all  of  which  are  so  fully  and  conveniently  represented  in  the 
Phonographic  scheme. 


Atf  intelligent  person,  on  commencing  the  study  of  Phonog- 
raphy, is  likely  to  experience  a  lively  sense  of  admira- 
tion on  discovering  how  seemingly  perfect  is  its  adapta- 
tion of  the  simplest  signs  to  the  representation  of  sounds,  how 
admirable  and  facile  are  its  abbreviating  appendages  of  hooks, 
circles,  and  loops,  and  how  eminently  reasonable  seems  to  be 
the  use  to  which  every  stroke  is  applied.  It  may  be  said  that 
geometrical  lines,  such  as  are  employed  in  Phonograph}',  have 
no  actual  relation  to  the  sounds  of  speech,  any  more  than  they 
have  to  storms  or  clouds.  Storms  and  clouds  may,  indeed,  be 
suggestively  indicated  by  lines;  but  sounds  are  things  that 
can  neither  be  seen  nor  felt,  and  we  recognize  their  momentary 
existence  only  when  they  reach  the  brain  through  the  ear. 
When,  however,  we  realize  the  possibility  of  using  dots,  lines, 
and  curves,  which,  by  correlative  agreement,  may  be  made  to 
stand  for  and  recall  certain  sounds,  we  find  ourselves  in  posses- 
sion of  a  means  by  which  spoken  words  may  be  represented  to 
the  eye,  and  by  which  they  can  be  perpetuated  and  transmitted 
from  one  person  to  another,  even  when  widely  separated  by 
time  or  space.  Words,  formulated  as  thoughts,  may,  it  is  true, 
be  pictorially  represented.  This  was  the  primitive  method 
adopted  by  all  semi-civilized  peoples,  and  is,  in  reality,  the  only 
direct  mode  of  visualizing  thought.  We  might,  for  example, 
picture  the  thought  conveyed  in  the  words,  "The  Highland 
shepherd,  on  the  bleak  hills,  is  watching  his  flock,"  and  a  pic- 
torial representation  might  record  the  thought;  but  the  picture 
would  not  convey  this  or  any  precise  form  of  words;  and  there 
are  innumerable  thoughts  and  facts  which  may  be  expressed  in 

63 


64  SfR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

words,  that  could  not  be  pictorially  or  symbolically  represented; 
hence,  the  importance  and  necessity  of  some  means  of  recording 
facts,  ideas,  and  emotions  by  picturing  the  words  employed  for 
their  vocal  expression. 

Writing,  in  the  present  stage  of  civilization,  is  as  necessary 
and  important  as  speech.  To  answer  the  needs  of  the  present 
time  it  must  be  legible  and  brief.  Now  reason  shows  and 
experience  proves  that  the  best  possible  forms  for  a  facile  and 
legible  representation  of  consonant  sounds  are  short  right  lines 
and  slightly  bent  curves.  These  are  the  best,  because  they  are 
the  briefest  to  write  and  the  most  readily  distinguished  when 
written,  and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  any  other  forms 
that  would  as  well  answer  the  required  conditions.  And  it  is  a 
fortunate  coincidence  that  there  are  just  as  many  of  these  signs, 
when  made  light  and  shaded,  as  are  needed  to  represent  the 
consonant  sounds  of  our  language.  The  unobstructed  voiced 
sounds,  known  as  vowels,  form  a  separate  and  distinct  class  of 
.sounds.  In  the  Roman  alphabet  not  one-half  of  those  heard  in 
English  speech  are  provided  for  by  the  letters  a,  <?,  i ,  o,  u.  There 
are  at  least  twelve  vowels  or  unobstructed  sounds  in  English 
that  must  be  represented,  and  they  are  found  to  admit  of  a 
natural  arrangement,  as  orderly  in  their  sequence  as  are  the 
musical  sounds  of  the  major  scale  of  music.  These  sounds  are 
heard  both  long  and  short,  a  distinction  easily  recognized  on 
pronouncing  the  words  caught,  cot;  fool,  full;  etc.  These  unob- 
structed vocals  admit  of  prolongation,  as  when  words  are  made 
emphatic.  The  negative  no  is  doubly  emphasized  by  lengthen- 
ing the  vowel.  Othello's  self-condemnation,  "Fool,  fool,  fool!" 
would  be  robbed  of  its  appealing  force  if  the  vowel  were  not 
prolonged.  The  vowels  are  the  sounds  that  make,  with  proper 
tone,  force,  and  modulation,  the  music,  melody,  and  effectiveness 
of  speech,  and  are  in  this  respect  wholly  unlike  the  contacts, 
explosive,  hissing,  buzzing,  or  trilling  emissions  of  breath  pro- 
ducing the  consonants,  and  which  so  distinctly  modify  and 
emphasize  the  vowels  they  precede  or  follow.  The  essential 
difference  between  these  two  classes  of  sounds  is  indicated  in 
Phonography  by  a  representation  equally  distinct  and  charac- 
teristic, the  consonants  being  represented  by  straight  lines  and 
curves,  the  vowels  by  detached  dots  and  dashes,  that  are  made 
light  for  short  vowels,  and  shaded  to  indicate  the  longer  sounds. 


'  PHONOGRAPHIC  EVOLUTION.  65 

•  When  attention  is  directed  to  human  speech,  what,  on  first 
thought,  could  seem  so  difficult  of  analysis,  more  undefinable 
and  complex,  or  less  subject  to  rule 'or  law,  than  the  rapid 
motion  of  the  lips,  teeth,  and  tongue,  as  they  check,  variously 
modify,  prolong,  or  shorten  the  audibly  expired  breath,  which, 
either  whispered  or  vocalized — that  is,  with  or  without  a  vibra- 
tion of  the  vocal  cords — makes  speech?  If  it  had  not  been 
done,  how  futile  would  seem  any  attempt  to  reduce  to  their 
elements  the  gliding,  complex  stream  of  articulated  and  vocal- 
ized breath  that  is  heard  even  in  deliberate  conversation!  The 
classification  and  nomenclature  of  sounds  of  widely  differing 
quality  would  seem  a  like  impossible  task.  No  wonder,  then, 
that  we  find,  even  among  those  who  have  given  years  of  special 
thought  to  the  subject,  essential  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
what  are  the  actual  elements  that  are  heard  in  certain  classes  of 
words,  while  intelligent  people,  who  have  not  made  a  special 
study  of  the  subject,  have  very  confused  ideas  of  the  sounds 
they  use  in  speech,  and  when  they  are  asked  to  name  the  sounds 
heard  in  some  simple  word,  say,  for  example,  the  word  think, 
they  seem  incapable  of  realizing  what  are  the  vocal  elements  of 
the  word  apart  from  the  form  in  which  it  meets  the  eye  on  the 
printed  page,  and  their  mental  conception  of  the  word  think, 
will  be  confused  with  the  sounds,  or  rather  the  names,  heard 
when  we  say  tee-aitch-eye-en-kay ;  but  phoneticians  know  that 
not  one  of  these  letter-names  is  heard  when  we  SAY  think.' 
Phonography,  therefore,  is  not  the  writing  of  the  conventional 
spelling,  which  is  confusing  and  more  or  less  irrational,  but  con- 
sists of  writing  the  spoken  word  by  signs  that  stand  for  the 
sounds  which  reach  the  ear  when  the  word  is  distinctly  pro- 
nounced, and  of  which  the  ordinary  spelling,  though  a  professed 
representation,  is,  in  most  cases,  a  misleading  guide. 

The  sounds  of  speech,  when  reduced  to  their  elements,  are, 
in  the  Phonographic  system,  classified  into  groups,  and  pictured 
by  signs  that  correspond  to  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  sounds 
they  represent;  and  as  each  sign  is  allowed  to  stand  for  but  one 
and  always  the  same  sound,  there  can  be  no  hesitation  in 
deciphering  any  given  sign  or  combination  when  it  thus  dis- 
tinctly appeals  to  the  eye.  Isaac  Pitman  was  not  the  first  to 
attempt  an  analysis  and  classification  of  the  sounds  of  English 
ispeech.  It  had  been  imperfectly  accomplished  in  Walker's 


66  S/R  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


Pronouncing  Dictionary,  from  which  the  author  of  Phonography 
obtained  his  first  ideas;  but  he  was  the  first  to  devise  a  scheme 
of  brief  and  legible  writing,  based  upon  a  philosophic  theory  of 
sounds,  which  secured  to  the  writer  the  accuracy  and  certainty 
with  which  figures  are  used  to  represent  numbers.  He  was  the 
first  to  discover  that  the  signs  contained  in  the  preceding 
diagrams,  when  light  and  shaded,  were  all  that  were  needed  to 
represent  every  consonant  sound  of  human  speech.  He  dis- 
covered certain  elements  of  abbreviation,  alike  facile  and  legible, 
as  that  each  phonographic  sign,  made  of  convenient  length, 
might  be  shortened  and  lengthened  with  perfect  legibility,  thus 


PHONOGRAPHIC  EVOLUTION.  67 

giving  each  sign  a  three-fold  power.  He  discovered  that  small 
hooks,  circles,  and  loops,  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  these  brief 
signs,  could  be  employed  to  represent  added  sounds,  terminals, 
and  syllables,  which  could  be  as  legibly  represented  by  these 
abbreviated  appendages  as  when  written  with  the  lengthier  ele- 
mentary signs,  and  that  thus  was  secured  a  means  of  writing 
words  with  almost  the  ease  and  freedom  with  which  they  are 
spoken.  How  utterly  unanticipated  and  incredible  would  it 
have  seemed  to  the  old  school  of  stenographers  could  they  have 
been  told  that  all  the  consonants  of  the  following  words  were 
fully  expressed  by  the  accompanying  brief  phonographic  signs, 
where  three,  four,  five,  six  and  seven  consonant  sounds  are  writ- 
ten by  an  uninterrupted  stroke  of  the  pen ! 

J  ;>,  3  \  ^ 

tent         cleaned  strand          punster       spinsters 

The  principles  of  abbreviation  and  their  systematic  applica- 
tion were  only  very  gradually  evolved  by  years  of  patient 
experimenting  on  the  part  of  the  author  and  thousands  of  ear- 
nest students  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  so  that  now,  on  examin- 
ing the  early  editions  of  the  system,  one  is  surprised  to  find  in 
what  an  imperfect  and  fragmentary  manner  these  convenient  and 
useful  principles  of  abbreviation  were  at  first  recognized  and 
applied.  There  is  no  more  necessary  abbreviation,  for  example, 
than  that  required  for  the  final  t,  heard  in  the  past  tense  of  a 
numerous  class  of  verbs,  as  sip,  pick,  cash,  etc.,  and  d,  as  heard 
in  the  past  tense  of  rib,  bag,  bathe,  etc.,  and  there  is  no  more 
beautiful  principle  of  abbreviation  in  Phonography  than  that 
known  as  the  halving  principle,  by  which  T  or  D,  according  as 
the  letter  is  light  or  shaded,  is  added  to  the  value  of  a  consonant 
stroke  by  making  it  half  its  normal  length.  This  necessity  was 
not  even  recognized  in  Isaac  Pitman's  first  published  scheme, 
and  only  partially  and  not  uniformly  applied  in  the  1840  edition 
of  Phonography.  On  one  occasion,  when  instructing  a  class  in 
Phonography,  using  the  edition  of  1843,  I  was  explaining  to 
what  letters  the  halving  principle  was  applied,  and  why  it  was 
not  applied  to  other  letters,  the  halved  form  of  which  repre- 
sented other  sounds  than  *,  or  d,  when  a  lazy  pupil  said:  "Why 
not  apply  the  principle  to  all  the  letters  and  save  us  the  trouble 
of  memorizing  the  exceptions?"  Why  not,  indeed!  It  took 


68  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

years  to  establish  this  convenient  improvement,  it  cost  thousands 
of  dollars  in  unsalable  books,  and  gave  rise  to  endless  complaints 
and  discontent  on  the  part  of  those  who,  having  learned  the 
system,  had  to  change  their  habit  if  they  would  conform  to  the 
rule  of  the  progressives.  In  like  manner,  my  brother  Joseph 
was  explaining  to  a  class  the  principle  on  which  the  vowels  in  a 
word  might  be  omitted  and  yet  be  indicated  by  position,  without 
actually  inserting  them,  when  a  pupil  said;  "If  you  omit  the 
vowel,  why  not  join  the  consonant  outlines,  and  thus  save  the 
time  and  trouble  of  lifting  the  pen  before  starting  for  the  next 
word?"  Though  the  idea  was  not  new,  the  complaint  gave  rise 
to  a  series  of  experiments  that  resulted  in  a  distinct  and  abbre- 
viated style  of  phonographic  phrase-writing,  which  was  first 
worked  out,  to  a  practical  end,  by  my  brother,  Joseph  Pitman, 
Mr.  T.  A.  Reed,  and  myself,  and  proved  to  be  a  means  by  which 
a  degree  of  brevity,  quite  unlooked-for  on  the  part  of  the  author, 
was  obtained  without  any  sacrifice  of  legibility.  There  are  few, 
even  among  intelligent  phonographers  of  the  present  day,  \vho 
have  other  than  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  the  vast  amount  of 
experimenting,  discussion,  inconvenience,  and  expense  that  have 
attended  the  evolution  of  Phonography.  It  might  enhance  the 
phonographer's  interest  in  his  favorite  art  if  he  recalled  the 
fact  that  the  forms  he  uses  and  the  theory  he  accepts  for  the 
representation  of  speech, — seemingly  so  perfectly  natural  because 
it  is  so  facile  and  convenient, — is  but  the  culmination  and 
fruition  of  a  series  of  experiments,  changes,  and  improvements 
which  were  commenced,  not  with  Isaac  Pitman,  but  in  the  very 
childhood  of  civilization,  and  which  have  been  uninterruptedly 
continued  to  the  present  time.  From  the  earliest  pictorial  and 
hieroglyphic  symbols  to  the  latest  phonographic  phraseography, 
it  has  been  an  unending  series  of  experiments  and  improve- 
ments, and  each  step  has  been  received  with  more  or  less  of 
hesitancy  and  distrust,  because  of  the  inconvenience  attending  a 
change  of  habit.  The  development  of  Phonography  affords 
another  illustration  of  the  general  rule  that  the  simplest,  most 
convenient,  and  most  reasonable  way  of  doing  anything  is  usually 
the  last  to  come,  but  when  the  right  thing  is  accepted,  it  seems 
amazing  that  the  inferior  and  imperfect  one  should  ever  have 
been  tolerated,  much  less  loved  and  tenaciously  adhered  to. 


PHONOGRAPHIC  EVOLUTION. 


69 


(and 
•  a,  aw, 


0   ' 


&, 

i  -  wn0. 


>f\. 


B 
D 
F 

Cra 

ffe 

J 

K 

L 

01 


R 


«f, 


'Ji, 


a&. 

?/ 


,awd, 

&         / 


f%~  aM,  cUuwtJJ?SZrt;&, 

t/ 


/lets 


r 


*tf,    0 


•  S: 


J        J-  Z 
wneie,  urntefo, 

enaynae,  ontui', 
ttnatt, , 


v,  &tt*£~  v/  face  ^,  O 
.   /vum 


O 


aw* 


1 

r 
*\ 


-e^t 


az&zf 


ftek 


T 


^i/ 


/A 

n 

i. 

MtM,, 


yo  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


PHONOGRAPHIC  EVOLUTION. 


Phonography        JoJ^O 

p 

\ 

\ 

B 

F 

^ 

V. 

r 

Vowels 
Xron  fr         Short 

Pl 

\ 

\ 

U 

fl 

^L 

^. 

rl 

e 

- 

1 

it 

fr 

^ 

^v 

rr 

pr 

N 

N 

br 

a 

• 

et 

If 

^ 

^^ 

lr 

Ip 

N* 

X 

Ib 

ah/ 

. 

J 

at 

rf 

^ 

•^ 

rr 

rp 

\ 

\ 

n 

ft 

^ 

^ 

rd 

an, 

"1 

- 

at 

pt 

\ 

\ 

td 

TS 

( 

( 

TE 

0 

- 

- 

vJt 

T 

1 

I 

D 

thl 

C 

C 

ihl 

00 

_ 

. 

oot 

tkr 

(\ 

) 

•thr 

u 

r 

f 

dl 

Double  Parrels 

Ith 

\j 

C 

Uh 

lr 

1 

1 

dr 

^ 

«l 

1 

yi 

rtlv 

^ 

) 

rib 

It 

i 

I 

Id 

5 

) 

) 

•z 

yd 

H 

-. 

ye 

rl 

j 

J 

rd 

s 

o 

o 

z 

yah 

ya, 

in 

) 

> 

dn 

&S 

J 

^ 

?ff 

yau 

« 

- 

yau 

shl 

r 

r 

*M 

CH 

/ 

/ 

J- 

yo 

« 

» 

y° 

shr 

j 

j 

xhr 

eTil 

/ 

S 

jl 

„ 

.- 

yoo 

Islv 

c 

c 

Ith 

yoo 

cTtr 

/ 

/ 

jr 

rah 

j 

j 

r*k 

We 

« 

c 

M 

Uk 

/ 

/ 

lj 

sht 

^ 

i 

vhd 

mi 

c 

c 

*re 

reTi 

/ 

y 

rj 

shn 

/ 

' 

*hn 

vral 

c 

wa 

L 

r 

// 

Z, 

ckt 

/ 

/ 

jd 

•wan 

1 

1 

-  vro 

2m 

^ 

/ 

rl 

K 

— 

— 

G 

In 

^ 

Q 

rm 
rn 

wo 

> 

' 

•wu 

U 

-- 

«- 

gl 

M 

— 

^ 

Woo 

, 

14VO 

kr 

e-- 

^~ 

Sr 

ml 

^ 

^ 

nl 

I 

V 

1 

ai 

Ik 

3 

— 

lg 

mr 

*-v 

^ 

nr 

(to 

,\ 

A 

on. 

mp 

^ 

( 

nt 

rl 

—  = 

—a 

rS 

Treble   Sorrels 

mt 

I 

C 

nd 

fr 

- 

- 

Sd 

n 

< 

1 

Woi 

md 

1 

c 

nci 

kit 

r 

r 

£«< 

NG 

^ 

r 

nJ 

yrat 

. 

e 

,. 

YfOU 

TIM 

- 

^ 

Jl 

n@k 

- 

^ 

hr 

PHONOGRAPHIC  EVOLUTION. 


73 


74 


SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


Initial  and  Final  Appendages, 

Halving,  and  Lengthening  of  Curves. 

s       ss     &ss     s/     sts    str    sirs    n      ns    tion  tioni  s-tions-tioiis 


Vo 


V 


*-/ 


V. 


ss-f 


st-f 


V 


V. 


V 


V, 


a 


V 


v 


s-fl 


V, 


ft 


sfr 


f-t 


Vo 


s-f-t 


V. 


ss-ft 


st-f-t 


fl-t 


s-fl-t 


•v 


V. 


Vo 


-f-tr 


SS-f-tf 


st-ftr 


V. 


V- 


V, 


V. 


Vo 


fl-tr 
&-fl-tr 

ff-tr 
s-frtr 


V, 


lo 


"\ 


•s 


*> 


of 


HE  promulgation  of  Pho- 
nography in  Great  Brit- 
ain, by  a  band  of  ardent 
young  men,  moved  by  an  enthu- 
siasm born  of  the  conviction  of 
the  importance  of  the  phonetic 
principle  as  a  factor  in  education 
and  general  progress,  began  in 
1842.  My  brother  Joseph,  who 
was  four  years  my  senior,  was 
the  pioneer  lecturer  and  teacher. 
I  joined  him  early  in  1843,  and 
Thomas  Allen  Reed  soon  after- 
wards. Within  a  few  years  the 
band  of  helpers  in  the  new  cru- 
sade included  Henry  Pitman, 
George  Withers,  G.  R.  Haywood, 
W.  George  Ward  (afterwards 
mayor  of  Nottingham ),  Timothy 
Walker,  W.  E.  Woodward  (who 

75 


76  STtf  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

had  been  T.  A.  Reed's  tutor  in  a  private  academy),  J.  H.  Mog- 
ford,  H.  S.  Brooks,  C.  Sully,  F.  Carson,  the  philosophic,  critical, 
and  aristocratic  Mr.  Edgar,  and  J.  Hornsby.  All  these,  with  the 
exception  of  the  last  named,  were  young  men  who  had  received 
a  good  English  and,  in  some  cases,  a  classical  education.  Mr. 
Hornsby  had  been,  from  his  early  youth,  a  worker  in  a  cotton- 
mill,  but  having  been  taught  Phonography  in  one  of  the  free 
classes,  he  became  so  enthused  by  its  philosophy  and  utility  that 
he  abandoned  his  calling  to  become  a  promulgator  of  the  art.  He 
confined  his  labors  to  the  more  intelligent  of  the  working  classes 
in  the  populous  towns  of  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,  from  among 
whom  he  formed  large  classes,  at  a  low  fee,  and  taught  the  art 
with  great  success.  All  the  lecturers  and  teachers  named 
became,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  devoted  missionaries  in 
what  they  regarded  as  an  educational  and  semi-philanthropic 
movement,  teaching  Phonography,  more  or  less  gratuitously,  and 
advocating  a  reform  in  English  spelling  which  would  result  in  a 
great  shortening  of  the  time  of  children  in  learning  to  read,  and 
tend  to  bring  the  elements  of  education  within  the  reach  of  all. 
These  literary  reformers  usually  worked  in  pairs,  and  almost 
every  city  and  town  of  importance  in  Great  Britain  was  visited 
between  1842  and  1852.  To  the  foregoing  list  must  be  added  the 
honored  name  of  T.  P.  Barkas,  of  Newcastle,  afterwards  known 
as  Alderman  Barkas.  He  confined  his  labors  to  his  native  place, 
but  labored  for  years,  with  unflagging  zeal,  in  teaching  Phonog- 
raphy to  large  classes  gratuitously,  until  it  was  said  that  even 
ragged  xirchins  of  the  place  were  in  the  habit  of  chalking  up 
moral  apothegms,  in  correctly  written  Phonography,  on  the  bare 
walls  and  board  fences  about  the  town. 

At  the  earnest  wish  of  my  brother  Isaac,  I  came  to  the 
United  States  late  in  1852;  and,  at  that  time,  I  was  the  only 
remaining  lecturer  and  teacher  who  had,  for  nearly  ten  years, 
made  the  dissemination  of  Phonography  and  Phonetics  successful 
enough  to  yield  a  frugal  living.  Other  teachers,  after  laboring 
for  a  few  months,  and  some  for  two  or  three  years,  accepted  posi- 
tions as  reporters,  or  engaged  in  other  callings.  There  were  two 
of  these  early  apostles  whose  long,  though  occasionally  inter- 
rupted labors  in  spreading  Phonography,  and  in  the  public  advo- 
cacy of  the  phonetic  reform,  were  especially  earnest  and  note- 
worthy. My  brother  Henry,  who,  with  intermissions  devoted  to 


EARL  Y  PROMULGA  TION  OF  PHONOGRAPHY.         77 

the  advocacy  of  other  reforms,  has  been  an  active  phonetic  mis- 
sionary for  more  than  half  a  century.  My  brother  Frederick 
became  the  London  publisher  of  his  brother's  phonographic 
books,  and  a  publisher  of  music,  by  which  he  made  a  fortune. 
My  brother  Henry,  with  less  worldly  wisdom,  but  with  a  wide- 
embracing  thought  and  affection  for  humanity,  has  been  a  con- 
stant and  faithful  helper  in  many  ways  to  make  people  wiser, 
healthier,  and  happier,  and  his  long-continued  devotion  to  a  life 
of  usefulness,  though  often  repaid  by  rude  rebuffs,  has  been  as 
constant  as  it  is  admirable.  Another  of  the  early  pioneers  was 
George  Withers.  He  was  a  nephew  of  Isaac  Pitman's  first  wife. 
He  was  well  educated ;  and  if  an  intelligent  person  could  be, 
George  Withers  was  a  fanatical  advocate  of  the  phonetic  reform. 
He  was  not  sufficiently  practical  to  make  the  teaching  of  Phonog- 
raphy yield  more  than  a  scant  and  precarious  living.  After  a  few 
years  spent  in  phonetic  propagandisin,  he  became  private  secre- 
tary to  Mr.,  afterwards  Sir,  James  Matheson,  M.  P.  This  gentle- 
man, who  had  been  a  merchant — and  made  a  great  fortune  by 
selling  opium  to  the  Chinese — had  purchased  the  island  of  Lewis, 
the  largest  of  the  Hebrides,  containing  over  five  hundred  square 
miles  of  land.  An  incident  illustrating  the  independence  and 
nobleness  of  character  of  my  friend  Withers  is  worth  recalling. 
Sir  James  lived  in  a  fine  mansion  in  London,  and  the  family 
employed  a  retinue  of  servants.  On  one  occasion,  from  low- 
ering of  wages,  restriction  of  privileges,  or  some  other  cause, 
not  now  remembered,  the  whole  household  of  domestics  struck 
for  their  rights.  In  the  dilemma,  Withers  was  appealed  to  by  the 
mistress  of  the  establishment.  To  the  consternation  of  the  family, 
he  sided  with  the  domestics,  from  a  conviction  that  they  had  rea- 
son and  justice  on  their  side,  and  the  misunderstanding  was  set- 
tled in  their  favor ;  but  it  cost  my  friend  his  position  before  many 
months  had  passed,  when  he  again  took  to  the  phonetic  field. 

Phonography,  as  a  time  and  labor-saving  art,  has  now  grown 
into  such  a  mercantile  necessity,  both  in  this  country  and  in 
England,  and  its  practise  is  so  generally  regarded,  from  a  utili- 
tarian and  business  standpoint,  that  it  will  be  difficult  for  the 
present  generation  of  phonographers  to  realize  how  much  its 
early  dissemination  was  an  educational,  philanthropic,  and  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  usually  accompanied  by  incessant  labor,  self- 
sacrifice,  often  privation.  In  its  earl)7  days,  Phonography  was 


78  S/A  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

never  severed  from  its  association  with  the  much  needed  reform 
of  English  spelling,  and  the  consequent  simplification  of  element- 
ary education,  that  would  bring  its  benefits  and  blessings  within 
the  reach  of  all.  During  these  early  years  my  brother  Isaac 
would  again  and  again  remind  us :  "Do  not  fail,  after  your  pay 
classes  are  formed,  to  give  a  lecture  on  the  phonetic  reform  ; 
circulate  documents  and  the  Phonetic  Journal,  and  show  the 
necessity  and  importance  of  phonetic  printing."  Speaking  from 
my  own  experience,  and  from  the  knowledge  I  have  of  the  labors 
of  others,  the  early  advocacy  of  Phonography  and  the  phonetic 
principle  was  not  undertaken  for  gain  or  merely  to  earn  a  living, 
but  was  engaged  in  from  a  sincere  love  of  the  art,  a  desire  to  see 
its  use  extended,  and  a  strong  conviction  of  the  educational  bene- 
fits that  would  result  from  the  adoption  of  the  phonetic  principle 
in  writing  and  printing.  Our  motives  in  spreading  Phonography 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  where  we  taught  one  pupil  for 
pay,  we  instructed  five,  on  an  average,  without  any  thought  of 
remuneration.  In  large  towns  and  cities,  where  our  stay  extended 
to  months,  much  of  my  time  and  labor  were  given  to  teaching 
Phonetic  Reading  to  classes  of  ignorant  adults,  prisoners,  and 
pauper  children.  This  was  done  to  test  the  practicability  of  Pho- 
notypy,  and  to  show  in  how  brief  a  period  the  ignorant  and  the 
young  could  be  taught  to  read  by  means  of  a  consistent  alphabet. 
In  Manchester,  Sheffield,  Preston,  single  handed,  and  in  Glasgow, 
with  the  assistance  of  my  brother  Henry,  permanent  Sunda)*- 
schools  for  adults  of  both  sexes  were  established,  where  phonetic 
reading,  lectures,  and  vocal  music  were  made  instructive  and 
interesting  exercises. 

Our  custom  was  to  begin  our  labors  in  a  place  with  an  intro- 
ductory lecture  in  a  public  hall  hired  for  the  occasion.  Admis- 
sion to  the  lectures  was  by  card  only,  which  could  be  obtained  at 
the  booksellers'  stores  gratuitously.  The  lectures  were  announced 
by  tastefully  printed  handbills,  which  were  displayed  in  the  shop 
windows,  and  by  advertisements  in  the  newspapers,  when  any 
were  published  in  the  place.  I  made  it  a  point  to  have  these 
handbills  printed  with  care  and  on  good  paper,  and  I  never  per- 
mitted one  to  be  printed  without  seeing  one  or  more  proofs,  and 
the  exceptions  were  rare  when  I  did  not  insist  upon  many 
changes  in  the  display  lines  before  they  were  made  to  accord  with 
my  ideas  of  good  taste.  I  have  at  first  annoyed,  and  afterwards 


EARLY  PROMULGATION  OF  PHONOGRAPHY.         79 

received  the  thanks  of,  many  a  compositor  for  showing  him  the 
difference  between  a  tasteful  and  a  vulgar  use  of  type.  In  addi- 
tion to  handbills,  we  liberally  circulated  phonographic  docu- 
ments that  gave  an  explanation  of  the  principles  and  uses  of  the 
art,  and  contained  the  opinions  of  leading  men  as  to  its  merit  and 
advantages.  Our  lectures  were  uniformly  attended  by  large  and 
intelligent  audiences,  and,  not  unfrequently,  were  presided  over 
by  the  mayor  or  some  leading,  influential  citizen. 

During  my  phonographic  teaching  career  in  Great  Britain, 
which  extended  from  the  spring  of  1843  to  December  of  1852,  I 
lectured  and  taught  in  the  following  cities  and  towns  of  Great 
Britain,  making  a  stay  of  from  one  to  six  months  in  each  place : 
London,  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Sheffield,  Nottingham,  Hull, 
York,  Lancaster,  Leicester,  Preston,  Derby,  Chesterfield,  Mansfield, 
Coventry,  Whitehaven,  Carlisle,  Southampton,  Winchester,  Plym- 
outh, Portsmouth,  Penzance,  Truro,  Glasgow,  Dumfries,  Sterling, 
Dundee,  Montrose,  Kilmarnock,  Perth,  Aberdeen,  Dublin,  and  Bel- 
fast. During  this  period  I  was  assisted,  first  by  G.  R.  Haywood, 
then  by  George  Ward,  afterwards  by  my  brother  Henry.  These 
worthy  helpers  remained  with  me  for  periods  varying  from  a  few 
months  to  three  years,  in  the  case  of  my  brother  Henry.  In  visit- 
ing many  places  I  was,  professionally,  alone,  being  accompanied 
only  by  my  wife  and  infant  daughter  Agnes.  My  opening  lec- 
ture never  failed  to  be  a  trying  ordeal  to  me.  During  the  ten 
years  I  devoted  to  the  spread  of  the  phonetic  reform  in  England, 
the  first  lecture  was  preceded  by  two  days  of  unrest  and  misery. 
The  day  of  the  lecture  especially,  I  suffered  from  depression  of 
spirits,  that,  even  to  this  distant  day,  it  is  painful  to  recall,  but  the 
instant  I  faced  my  audience  it  all  disappeared.  From  the  moment 
I  opened  my  mouth  and  looked  into  the  glad  eyes  of  my  audi- 
ence, I  was  not  only  at  ease,  but  felt  as  if  possessed  by  a  sense  of 
exaltation  in  the  performance  of  a  pleasurable  duty;  and  if  the 
hall  was  not  too  large  and  the  audience  too  numerous  to  be 
under  my  control,  which  was  the  case  on  only  a  few  occasions, 
my  lecture  was  successful.  I  had  youth  and  health  in  my  favor, 
and  my  powers  of  endurance  must  have  been  of  a  staying  quality, 
for,  at  that  time,  I  worked  and  walked  and  taught  fifteen  to  six- 
teen hours  each  day.  I  never  knew  fatigue,  nor  did  I  know  aught 
of  ache  or  ailment  of  any  kind.  My  living  expenses  for  many 
years  were  not  more  than  a  dollar  a  week.  When  my  brother 


8o  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Henry  was  my  partner,  our  united  living  expenses  were  uni- 
formly between  six  and  seven  shillings  per  week.  It  was  a  prac- 
tise, from  which  I  never  deviated  on  the  day  of  my  lecture,  to 
touch  neither  food  nor  drink  after  my  mid-day  meal  till  after  my 
lecture.  This  I  did  that  my  voice  might  be  clear.  I  never  had 
occasion  to  regret  this  abstinence  but  once.  My  opening  lecture 
at  Winchester  was  delivered  while  I  was  residing  at  Southamp- 
ton. These  cities  are  ten  miles  apart,  and  I  walked  this  distance 
after  dinner;  and  I  distinctly  recall  the  vexation  I  felt  during 
my  lecture  from  a  lack  of  my  usual  energy.  My  audience  seemed 
too  much  for  me,  and  less  sympathetic  than  usual.  I  had  not 
then  discovered  the  limit  of  my  endurance,  and  I  attributed  my 
comparative  failure  on  this  occasion  to  stupidity,  when  in  reality 
it  was  exhaustion  and  starvation. 

Boarding  houses,  in  the  American  sense,  were  not  known  in 
England.  In  each  place  we  visited,  we  engaged  two  rooms  in  a 
respectable  private  house  centrally  situated,  usually  at  from  half 
to  a  guinea  per  week,  which  included  service.  In  our  sitting- 
room  we  lived,  taught  private  pupils  and  small  classes.  Our 
habits  of  life  were  regular  and  frugal.  If  we  visited  a  theatre  we 
sat  in  the  gallery.  When  we  traveled  it  was  always  in  third-class 
carriages,  which,  at  that  time,  were  usually  open,  breast-high 
trucks,  without  a  top,  in  which  passengers  sat  on  nine  inch 
boards  laterally  placed,  with  their  backs  to  the  locomotive,  to 
avoid  being  blinded  by  dust  and  cinders.  Parliament  ultimately 
interfered  with  this  barbarous  attempt  to  drive  people  into  sec- 
ond and  first-class  carriages,  by  compelling  the  companies  to  put 
tops  to  these  windowless,  penny-a-mile  cattle  pens. 

On  commencing  in  a  new  place,  after  engaging  our  rooms, 
I  would  advance  perhaps  half  a  guinea  to  the  landlady  with 
directions  somewhat  as  follows:  "We  are  simple  in  our  living, 
and  shall  give  no  further  trouble  if  you  will  let  us  have  well 
cooked  oatmeal  porridge  for  breakfast,  with  a  bowl  of  milk  for 
each  of  us,  taken  the  night  before  and  allowed  to  stand  for  cream ; 
for  dinner  we  take  potatoes  with  milk,  and  a  fruit  pudding  for 
dessert ;  and  wheaten  bread  and  butter  or  toast,  with  fruit  and  tea 
for  our  last  meal.  We  shall  take  this  every  day  till  we  ask  for  a 
change,"  which  we  never  did  in  any  place  or  in  any  particular, 
except  in  a  change  of  fruit  according  to  its  season.  We  had 
acquired  the  habit  of  assimilating  and  enjoying  simple  food  from 


EARLY  PROMULGATION  OF  PHONOGRAPHY.        81 

living  with  Isaac,  and  we  now  continued  a  like  frugal  dietary 
from  choice  and  as  a  duty.  It  would  have  robbed  it  of  its  charm 
to  admit  it  was  from  necessity.  Our  living  was  so  exceedingly  fru- 
gal that,  in  the  estimation  of  some  of  our  landladies,  it  seemed 
not  entirely  respectable.  On  one  occasion  the  comment  of  one 
of  them,  made  to  a  friend  of  ours,  happened  to  reach  us.  It  was 
to  the  effect  that,  though  we  lodged  and  dressed  and  acted  like 
gentlemen,  we  lived  like  beggars. 

It  is  perhaps  worth  recording,  as  an  argument  in  favor  of  a 
simple  diet  and  a  resulting  healthy  appetite,  that  the  gustatory 
enjoyment  of  this  fare  must  have  been  great,  for,  half  a  century 
later,  I  retain  distinct  associations  of  our  stay  in  certain  places, 
say  Lancaster,  for  instance,  for  the  glorious  red  currant  and  rasp- 
berry pudding  we  reveled  in  for  our  daily  dessert ;  and  Carlisle 
is  associated  with  its  admirably-cooked  apple  pudding,  that  daily 
graced  and  then  disappeared  from  our  festive  board.  It  would 
convey  a  wrong  impression  if  I  dismissed  this  pudding  episode 
without  saying  that,  at  the  time,  the  fact  would  have  possessed 
no  importance  beyond  the  temporary  enjoyment  which  came 
from  the  gratification  of  an  unvitiated  appetite.  Among  the 
lessons  we  were  taught  in  our  youth,  and  which  were  confirmed 
by  living  with  Isaac,  was  that  of  giving  little  thought  to  matters 
of  eating,  drinking  and  dress,  and  not  to  make  them  topics  of 
conversation,  except  in  illustration  of  a  principle.  The  mention 
of  Lancaster  and  Carlisle  recalls  our  pleasant  stay  and  successful 
labors  in  those  cities.  Lancaster,  having  no  manufacturing 
industries,  was  not  large  enough  to  give  us  a  free  class,  but  I 
very  distinctly  recall  the  exceptionally  intelligent  private  classes 
we  taught.  In  one  family  of  wealth  and  refinement  I  instructed 
a  class  of  five  ladies.  They  were  not  titled  people,  but  of  an 
old,  wealthy  and  aristocratic  stock,  that  showed  the  sweet  graces 
and  fine  effects  of  generations  of  culture.  I  remember,  too,  that 
it  was  in  Lancaster  I  taught  a  private  class,  each  member  paying 
his  half-guinea  fee,  for  a  course  of  twelve  lessons,  and,  as  was 
our  custom,  I  continued  to  instruct  it  freely,  as  long  as  I 
remained  in  the  place.  At  the  close  of  the  lessons  they  insisted 
on  my  accepting  a  silk  purse,  which,  on  opening  at  our  rooms, 
I  found  contained  five  golden  guineas,  at  that  time,  and  still 
more  so  now,  a  very  rare  and  highly -valued  coin. 

Our  stay  in   Carlisle,  as  might   be  said  of  our  sojoxirn  in 


82  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

almost  every  place,  has  its  distinct  associations.  We  made  an 
early  visit  to  its  grand  old  cathedral,  dating  back,  I  believe,  to 
the  eleventh  century.  Some  religious  paintings  on  the  walls 
had  been  whitewashed  over,  but  at  the  time  of  our  visit  were 
partly  recovered ;  but  my  eyes  were  fastened  on  the  finely-carved 
canopied  stalls  of  the  choir,  the  finials  of  which  had  been  uni- 
formly sawed  off,  giving  them  a  strange,  stunted  appearance. 
On  inquiring  of  the  verger,  we  were  told  that  these  mutilations 
were  the  work  of  Cromwell's  iconoclasts !  Cromwell  was  one  of 
my  heroes,  but  the  sight  of  this  Carlisle  mutilation,  the  skilled 
work  of  pious  monks,  terribly  shocked  me.  I  had  no  radical 
objection  to  his  chopping  off  the  head  of  a  faithless  King,  but  to 
destroy  the  finest  carving  in  this  grand  old  cathedral,  simply 
because  it  was  a  thousand  times  more  beautiful  than  anything 
they  possessed  in  their  barn-like  conventicals,  or  could  appreciate, 
seemed  an  unpardonable  barbarism.  Among  my  pupils  in 
Carlisle  I  taught  the  grand-daughter  of  Archdeacon  Paley,  who 
will  be  remembered  as  the  author  of  the  "Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity," and  who  had  been  Archdeacon  of  Carlisle.  She  was  a 
lady  of  great  intelligence  and  refinement,  and  seemed  quite 
charmed  with  the  philosophy  and  utility  of  Phonography. 
Carlisle,  too,  is  remembered  from  the  fact  that,  while  there  (1847) 
I  wrote  in  lithographic  style,  and  published  for  the  use  of  my 
pupils,  what  I  think  was  the  first  reading  book  of  selected  matter 
in  Phonography.  It  was  called  the  Phonographic  Bijou. 

Though  I  never  repeated  a  lecture,  there  was  a  general  simi- 
larity in  the  choice  of  matter  and  the  order  of  its  arrangement. 
The  introductory  part  might  deal  with  the  possible  universality, 
nobility,  and  richness  of  our  language  and  literature  ;  the  impor- 
tance of  an  alphabetic  representation,  and  its  dissemination  by 
printing,  as  the  prime  element  of  civilization;  a  sketch  of  repre- 
sented language,  from  the  pictorial,  symbolic,  and  the  hiero- 
glyphic methods,  to  the  Romanic  alphabet.  The  current  system 
of  writing,  its  length  and  shortcomings,  were  referred  to,  and  the 
absurdities  of  our  orthography,  were  always  made  a  telling 
feature.  Illustrations,  rapidly  and  distinctly  written  on  the 
blackboard,  never  failed  to  put  an  audience  in  good  humor.  How 
could  it  be  otherwise,  when,  for  example,  after  showing  how 
varied  were  the  powers  of  every  letter  in  the  alphabet,  and  how 
numerous  were  the  ways  in  which  each  sound  of  the  language 


EARL  Y  PROMULGA  TION  OF  PHONOGRAPHY.         83 

was  represented,  we  gravely  proposed  to  spell  scissors  by  the 
combination  psozzyrrzz  ?  This  was  but  one  of  the  eighty-one 
million  ways  in  which  we  might  spell  the  word,  every  one  of 
which  would  be  justified  by  the  spelling  of  other  words  : — a  truly 
orthographic  jumble  for  sizers,  or  sizurs,  but  justified  by  the  s  in 
psalm,  the  i  in  women,  z  in  buzz,  ur  in  myrrh,  and  z  in  whizz. 
Sometimes  we  took  time  to  be  exact,  and  showed,  quoting  from 
the  tables  given  in  Dr.  Ellis'  "Plea  for  Phonetic  Spelling,"  that 
the  sound  of  s  was  represented  in  nineteen  different  ways,  i  in 
thirty-seven,  z  in  eighteen,  e  or  u  (the  sound  represented  by  o  in 
the  spelling  of  scissors)  in  not  less  than  thirty-six,  r  in  ten,  and 
the  final  z,  as  we  before  stated,  in  eighteen  different  ways.  If 
the  varied  powers  of  these  letters  are  multiplied  one  by  the  other, 
the  total  number  of  spellings  will  be  81,997,920  different,  justifia- 
ble forms,  in  which  the  word  scissors  might  be  written. 

The  audience  would  now  be  ready  to  listen  to  an  explanation 
of  our  proposed  phonographic  substitute,  which,  being  strictly 
phonetic,  would  be  free  from  the  absurdities  and  time-wasting 
perplexities  of  the  common  spelling,  and  in  which,  instead  of 
employing  lengthy  forms  for  the  representation  of  sounds,  as  in 
longhand,  the  briefest  geometrical  signs  were  used,  thus  securing 
facility  and  speed  in  writing,  and  as  each  sign  was  used  for  but 
one  and  always  the  same  sound,  the  letters  of  the  phonographic 
alphabet  were  as  unchanging  as  are  the  powers  of  the  Arabic 
numerals,  and  Phonography,  therefore,  was  always  reliable,  cer- 
tain, and  legible.  An  explanation  of  the  phonographic  alphabet 
followed  as  I  referred  to  a  large  and  well-painted  chart  of  the 
vowels  and  simple  consonants,  which  was  suspended  immediately 
behind  me.  My  exposition  of  Phonography  was  made  interest- 
ing and  effective  in  the  degree  in  which  I  succeeded  in  turning 
my  audience,  at  this  stage  of  my  lecture,  into  a  class,  and  this 
I  invariably  did.  It  is  pleasant  to  recall  the  intelligent  enthu- 
siasm that  was,  as  a  rule,  enkindled  by  these  early  phonographic 
lectures.  When  the  alphabet  of  consonant  signs  had  been  briefly 
explained,  I  made  it  a  point  to  repeat  certain  of  the  phonographic 
signs  on  the  blackboard,  as  \  p,  t,  —  k,  ^  m,  •— -  n,  so  that 
they  would  be  memorized,  then  to  show  how  they  were  joined, 
and  I  proceeded  no  further  nor  faster  than  I  knew  the  majority 
of  my  audience  followed  me.  After  this,  the  vowel  signs  would 
be  written  after  the  letter  t,  and  perhaps  after  the  horizontal  letter 


«4  Sf#  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

—  k.  Then  I  would  make  the  letter  ~"  m,  and  below  it  write 
"the  first-place  heavy  vowel,"  after  naming  it;  I  would  suggest 
that  probably  some  of  my  auditors  would  know  the  word  I  had 
written,  and  some  one  would  be  sure  to  say  me.  Then  I  would 
add  a  /  and  again  intimate  that  probably  some  one  could  name  the 
word  I  had  written.  Some  one  would  be  sure  to  show  their 
ability  by  answering  met.  Then  would  occur  the  lecturer's 
opportunity  to  enlist  the  interest  of  all  who  had  not  blundered. 
I  would  recall  the  phonetic  principle  before  explained  and  insist 
that  if  me  spelled  me,  —  and  the  phonetic  principle  allowed  no 
change,  —  m-e-t  would  not  be  met,  but  —  and  numerous  voices, 
newly  awakened  to  a  recognition  of  the  phonetic  principle,  would 
answer  meet.  Then  would  follow  many  other  examples  of  simple 
words,  phonograph ically  written,  and  the  lecturer  would  have  his 
entire  audience  reading  selected  words  as  fast  as  they  were 
written,  and  people  were  delighted  to  find  that  they  could  read 
with  ease  words  thus  phonographically  expressed.  These  black- 
board exercises  were  followed,  and  the  lecture  concluded,  by 
illustrations  of  phonographic  reporting.  I  would  read  a  passage 
from  a  book,  leaving  the 'audience  to  name  the  page,  at  the  rate 
of  120  to  130  words  per  minute,  to  my  brother  Henry.  The  cor- 
rect reading  of  the  passage  from  his  phonographic  notes  always 
called  forth  an  approving  cheer.  To  show  that  phonographic 
reporting  and  reading  were  not  an  effort  of  memory,  I  would 
read  a  passage  backward,  then  when  Henry  read  his  notes  back- 
ward, the  audience  would  get  the  sense  of  the  passage,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  proof  that  it  was  the  legibility  of  the  system,  and  not 
memory,  that  was  concerned  in  deciphering  it.  The  reporting 
experiments  were  always  received  with  interest  and  delight,  for 
my  younger  brother  showed  an  intelligence  and  skill  that  were 
admirable.  A  brief  announcement  of  the  classes  we  intended  to 
open  concluded  the  lecture,  when  the  president,  if  we  had  one, 
would  be  sure  to  make  a  few  eulogistic  and  commendatory 
remarks,  and  then  would  follow  a  rush  to  the  platform  to  buy 
the  Manual  that  explained  the  wonderful  system ! 

In  places  that  contained  an  industrial  population,  it  was  our 
uniform  custom,  after  our  pay  classes  were  formed,  and  we  had 
organized  classes,  as  far  as  practicable,  at  the  private  schools,  to 
announce  another  public  lecture  (usually  given  in  the  Sunday- 
school  room  of  some  leading  church)  for  the  purpose  of  forming 


EARL  Y  PROMULGA  TION  OF  PHONOGRAPH Y.         85 

a  free  class  for  the  intelligent  among  the  working  people.  In  the 
manufacturing  towns  of  the  north  of  England  these  classes  were 
very  numerously  attended.  The  announcement  was  made  at  the 
lecture  that,  as  certain  expenses  would  necessarily  be  incurred 
for  printing  the  lecture  bills,  lighting  the  room,  and  for  janitor's 
attendance,  if  each  pupil  paid  one  penny  each  evening  to  meet 
this  expense,  we  would  be  only  too  happy  to  give  them  the 
necessary  instruction  to  make  them  practical  phonographers. 
This  was  always  answered  by  a  cheer  and  the  resulting  classes 
were  always  large  and  teaching  them  became  the  pleasantest 
duties  of  our  life.  There  was  really  very  little  generosity  in  our 
offer.  These  free  classes,  with  few  exceptions,  paid  all  expenses, 
and  the  profit  on  the  sale  of  the  books  was  a  welcome  addition  to 
our  earnings,  and  increased  the  remittances  we  were  able  to  send 
to  our  hard-pressed  brother  Isaac.  These  classes  were  attended 
by  pupils  from  sixteen  to  sixty  years  of  age,  and  they  varied  in 
number  from  fifty  to  two  hundred,  and  even  more,  according  to 
the  size  of  the  place.  Occasionally,  but  rarely,  there  would  be  a 
sprinkling  of  young  women.  The  classes  met  on  two  evenings 
of  the  week,  which  gave  the  pupils  time  for  practise  between  the 
lessons,  and  seldom  did  a  pupil  present  himself  without  bringing 
a  written  exercise  showing  several  hours  of  studious  application. 
Of  those  who  were  instructed  in  these  free  classes  some  became 
professional  reporters.  One  of  the  most  skilled  and  accurate 
reporters  I  have  known  in  this  country,  who  came  from  Scotland, 
told  me  that  his  father,  who  was  his  instructor,  had  been  a  pupil 
in  our  Aberdeen  free  class.  This  reporter  attributed  his  dexterity 
to  the  fact  that  when  he  was  a  youth  of  fourteen,  and  up  to  the 
time  he  left  home,  he  was  accustomed  to  report  the  Sunday  ser- 
mons, which  he  afterwards  read  to  his  mother,  whose  defective 
hearing  prevented  her  from  attending  the  services. 

These  free  classes  had  a  delight  all  their  own.  The  spirit 
that  prevailed  seemed  to  be  an  intelligent  excitement.  The 
explanation  of  the  system,  with  illustrations  on  the  blackboard, 
the  simultaneous  reading  and  writing  of  words  and  sentences, 
made  the  hour  pass  all  too  soon.  The  gradual  unfolding  of  the 
system  was  received  with  delight  and  surprise,  and  as  each  new 
principle  was  explained,  the  pleasure  and  satisfaction  of  the 
pupils  would  be  shown  by  broad  smiles,  and  the  more  receptive 
ones  seemed  ready  to  spring  from  their  seats  !  I  have  again  and 


86  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

again  heard  from  pupils  at  the  close  of  the  lesson  such  exclama- 
tions as  "  I  never  enjoyed  anything  so  much  in  my  life!  "  From 
many  cities  and  towns  we  were  not  allowed  to  depart  without 
some  demonstration  on  the  part  of  our  pupils  ;  presents,  written 
addresses,  and  a  tea-drinking  soiree  or  phonetic  festival,  with 
music,  appropriate  speech-making,  congratulations,  and  good 
wishes,  would  pleasantly  and  affectionately  close  our  labors  in 
the  place. 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S 
habit  was  to  rise 
at  four,  and  never 
later  than  five,  o'clock 
summer  and  winter. 
His  toilet  and  devo- 
tional reading  being 
over,  he  was  always  at 
his  desk  at  six  o'clock, 
whether  he  worked  at 
home  or  in  his  office, 
which  was  more  than 
a  mile  from  his  resi- 
dence. The  mere 
statement  that  he 
worked  from  six  in  the 
morning  till  nine  and 
ten  at  night,  with  brief 
intervals  f o  r  meals, 
every  day  in  the  year, 
that  for  fifty  years  he 
rarely,  if  ever,  took  a 
holiday,  and  that  he 
scarcely  ever  partook 
of  a  meal  away  from 
home,  save  when  on  a 

lecturing  journey,  conveys  but  an  imperfect  estimate  of  his  daily 
work,  unless  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  his  life  was  a  succession  of 
duties  which,  to  the  average  man,  would  be  felt  to  be  an  unremit- 
ting strain  of  head,  eye,  and  hand.  Those  who  are  familiar  with 
lithographic-transfer  writing,  of  which  Isaac  Pitman  did  such  an 
immense  amount,  know  that  it  requires  a  steady,  even,  and  deli- 
cate touch,  secured  only  by  a  concentration  of  the  powers  of  the 
hand,  eye,  and  brain,  and  an  absolutely  tranquil  mind,  to  produce 
the  precise  and  satisfactor}'  results  shown  in  my  brother's  works. 
Preparing,  proof-reading,  and  publishing  a  constant  succession  of 
new  books,  conducting  his  two  or  three  monthly  magazines, 
keeping  up  with  his  immense  correspondence,  and  attending, 
unaided,  as  he  did,  to  every  detail,  he  lived  a  life  of  unvarying, 
calm,  persistent,  almost  automatic  labor,  that  has  rarely,  if  ever, 
been  equalled.  In  1849,  after  fifteen  years  of  this  kind  of  work, 
when  attending  a  phonetic  festival  at  Nottingham,  addressing  an 

87 


88  S/fi  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

assembly  of  those  who  had  been  instructed  in  Phonography  by 
my  brother  Joseph  and  myself,  Isaac  Pitman  said : 

"I  am  sometimes  told  that  I  shall  wear  myself  out  in  a  few 
years,  but  I  think  differently.  I  take  everything  very  calmly, 
and  have  acquired  the  habit  of  doing  my  work  quickly,  in  short- 
hand style.  I  have  adopted  temperate  habits  of  life  and  early 
hours  of  rising  and  going  to  bed ;  and  I  have  the  happiness  of 
being  descended  from  a  healthy  stock,  being  the  third  child  of  a 
family  of  eleven,  only  one  of  whom  died  in  youth,  and  the  young- 
est of  whom,  Frederick  Pitman,  is  now  on  the  verge  of  manhood. 
I  am  now  thirty-five  years  of  age.  My  father,  an  eldest  son,  is 
now  sixty-one  and  has  scarcely  passed  the  prime  of  life,  and  his 
father,  who  is  eighty-one,  gives  promise  of  a  few  more  years  in  this 
world.  And  I  may  add  that  when  I  was  a  boy  I  attended  my 
great  grandfather's  funeral.  I  hope  then,  through  the  Divine 
mercy,  I  may  reach  the  age  of  eighty." 

Close  upon  half  a  century  after  this  a  lady  visited  him  ( March 
9,  1895),  and  wrote  in  a  London  monthly  magazine : 

"I  knew  that  tomorrow  would  be  his  eighty-second  birthday, 
and,  had  he  received  me  in  an  easy  chair  by  the  fireside,  it  would 
have  seemed  the  most  natural  thing  possible  on  a  cold  afternoon 
in  midwinter.  Instead,  I  found  him  in  his  study  seated  at  his 
writing  table  immersed  in  correspondence,  and  with  no  apparent 
thought  about  fire.  He  rose  quickly  to  greet  me  in  his  simple, 
kindly  way,  and  I  saw  that  though  his  back  was  slightly  bent 
and  his  hair  and  beard  were  white  as  the  snow  outside,  his  eye 
was  bright  and  keen,  and  his  face  ruddy  as  a  winter's  apple. 
There  is  a  juvenility,  too,  about  Sir  Isaac  which  is  very  bewilder- 
ing, for  he  skips  and  runs  about  the  house  from  one  room  to 
another,  and  jumps  upon  tables  and  chairs  to  reach  down  a  book 
or  a  picture  in  such  an  agile  manner  that  it  would  put  many  boys 
to  shame." 

It  might  have  been  said  of  my  brother,  with  more  truth  than  of 
most  men,  "There  is  but  one  Isaac  Pitman."  Yet,  strange  to  say, 
the  world  contained  at  least  two,  as  is  related  in  a  letter  from  my 
esteemed  friend,  the  late  Dr.  Thomas  Hill,*  former  President  of 
Harvard  University : 


*Dr.  Hill  was  one  of  those  rare  souls  whom  it  is  a  privilege  to  call  your  friend.  He 
was  a  profound  mathematician,  and  his  general  information  was  immense.  His  genial 
nature  made  his  talk  most  varied,  interesting,  and  instructive :  and  of  all  those  with 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL   TRAITS.  89 

Waltham,  Mass.,  22  June,  1891. 

"I  have  wanted  to  tell  you,  if  I  have  not  done  so,  of  a  curi- 
ous coincidence.  Professor  Barber,  at  Meadville,  told  me  that 
when  he  was  in  Somerville,  Mass.,  he  had  a  parishioner  named 
Isaac  Pitman,  a  very  enthusiastic  phonographer.  This  American 
Pitman  went  to  England,  and  while  there  called  on  your  brother 
Isaac  Pitman.  The  two  men  had  been  born  and  brought  up  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  but  were  of  no  known  relationship. 
But  they  were  of  the  same  age,  of  the  same  name,  with  the  same 
zeal  for  Shorthand,  with  the  same  devotion  to  Swedenborg,  and 
with  the  same  adherence  to  two  or  three  other  isms ;  Professor 
Barber  thinks  that  homeopathy  and  vegetarianism  were  among 
them.  This  is,  it  seems  to  me,  a  very  curious  set  of  coincidences, 
and  would  seem  to  indicate  the  probability  of  mental  peculiarity 
inherited  from  a  common  ancestor  several  generations  back." 

That  the  two  Isaacs  were  not  Dromeos,  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  one  had  leisure  to  make  a  pleasure  trip  across  the  Atlantic, 
partly  to  see  his  twinship,  while  the  other  lived  a  life  of  incessant 
occupation,  never,  seemingly,  spending  an  hour  of  his  waking  life 
in  doing  other  than  the  immediate,  pressing  duty  that  lay  before 
him.  I  could  give  a  hundred  instances  of  my  brother's  devotion 
to  duty  rather  than  yield  to  what  might  be  called  his  natural 
inclination.  His  sister  Rosella,  for  example,  the  next  younger 
than  Isaac,  was,  from  her  fine  intellectual  and  moral  nature,  more 
esteemed  than  either  of  his  two  younger  sisters,  yet  he  wrote  to 
me  (Bath,  13  May,  1853) :  "Dear  Rose  is  with  us.  She  came 
yesterday  and  will  leave  tomorrow.  So  beset  with  work  am  I,  I 
cannot  take  a  single  hour  to  be  with  her."  My  sister  had  not 
seen  Isaac  for  two  or  three  years,  and  he  was  the  sole  attraction 
in  her  visit  to  Bath.  They  would  meet  at  their  brief  meals,  but 
beyond  this,  so  "beset"  was  he  with  work — or,  as  Rose  might 
have  interpreted  it,  so  exacting  were  his  self-imposed  duties — that 


whom  I  have  been  brought  into  friendly  contact  in  this  broad  land,  he  certainly  was  one 
of  the  most  worthy,  intellectual,  and  likeable  I  have  ever  known.  Dr.  Hill  was  a  practi- 
cal phonographer,  and  a  stanch  friend  of  the  phonetic  reform.  As  chairman  of  the 
school  committee,  he  inaugurated  and  superintended  a  series  of  experiments  in  the 
public  schools  of  Waltham,  in  which  it  was  clearly  shown  that,  by  beginning  with  the 
Phonetic  method,  children  acquire  the  ability  to  read  the  common  system  in  much  less 
time  than  if  they  began  with  it,  and  that  its  use  was  attended  by  many  advantages, 
prominent  among  which  were  that  it  tended  to  give  distinctness  of  articulation  and 
accuracy  of  pronunciation.  The  report  of  these  experiments  (1853)  was  widely  quoted  in 
this  country  and  in  England. 


90  S/£  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

he  could  not  conscientiously  spare  a  single  hour  to  respond  to  the 
call  of  his  natural  affection  when  weighed  against  the  duties  and 
attractions  of  his  phonetic  mission.  That  Isaac  Pitman  possessed 
strong  natural  affection,  every  one  who  knew  him  felt  assured, 
but  so  absorbed  were  his  mind  and  heart  in  his  special  work,  that 
other  things  were  relatively  of  slight  importance.  For  example, 
my  wife  had  suffered  from  a  severe  fever  and  illness,  soon  after 
our  landing  in  Philadelphia,  in  giving  birth  to  Ellis,  my  second 
born  son,  due  chiefly  to  our  unusually  long  and  tempestuous  voy- 
age. Both  of  our  boy  babes  were  prostrated  by  sickness  that  soon 
terminated  their  earthly  career.  I  suppose  I  had  communicated 
these  facts  to  Isaac.  His  next  letter,  containing  four  pages  of 
closely  written  Shorthand,  was  wholly  occupied  with  details  of 
phonographic  business  matters,  but  the  last  three  lines  read,  "My 
hearty  sympathies  are  with  you  in  your  domestic  trials.  Happily 
there  is  no  poverty  in  addition.  With  many  kisses  for  the  dear 
sufferer  and  sweet  little  Agnes;  farewell !"  (the  last  word  crossed 
with  a  double  phonographic  kiss).  Whether  my  brother's  life 
would,  on  the  whole,  have  been  happier,  had  he  taken  a  different 
view  of  the  relative  importance  of  his  special  mission,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say.  Such  was  his  peculiar  organism,  such  were  the 
unusual  circumstances  which  accompanied  his  special  work,  that 
he  probably  could  not  have  been  other  than  he  was,  or  have  done 
other  than  he  did,  and  most  likely  he  got  out  of  life  all  the  happi- 
ness he  wanted,  or  deserved,  or  was  capable  of  enjoying. 

My  brother's  love  and  friendships  depended  chiefly  on  his 
sympathy  with  those  possessing  the  following  characteristics  :  a 
passion  for  phonetics  and  the  Phonetic  Reform,  when  in  agree- 
ment with  his  special  view  of  the  subject;  simplicity  of  living 
and  purity  of  life  and  conduct  in  accord  with  his  own  high  ethi- 
cal standard.  Agreement  on  religious  points,  when  not  accom- 
panied by  these  other  essentials,  did  not  seriously  affect  him,  and 
blood  relationship,  except  so  far  as  it  was  accompanied  by  traits 
of  character  referred  to,  did  not  seem  to  weigh  with  him  at  all. 
I  do  not  mean  that  Isaac  was  devoid  of  family  affection,  but  that 
certain  spiritual  and  mental  affinities  vastly  outweighed  them. 
He  could  be  as  impartially  severe  in  his  censure  of  any  member 
of  the  family,  who  acted  in  a  manner  contrary  to  his  ethical  stand- 
ard, as  to  the  veriest  stranger.  I  do  not  think  he  ever  prized  or 
retained  a  friendship  where  any  of  the  essentials  named  were 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL   TRAITS,  91 

lacking.  He  had  a  great  horror  of  smoking,  yet  I  accompanied 
him  once  when  he  tolerated  and  walked  in  company  with  one  who 
smoked,  but  who  chanced  to  be  the  son  of  his  dearest  friend,  who 
had  introduced  Swedenborg's  writings  to  his  notice.  It  was  in  an 
early  morning  walk  over  the  downs  at  Clifton  to  view  the  first 
wire  that  had  been  stretched  across  the  chasm  in  which  flowed 
the  Severn,  from  the  piers  of  the  first  suspension  bridge  built  in 
England  (1842).  Our  friend,  on  striking  a  match  to  light  his 
cigar,  said,  "I  hope  my  smoking  will  not  be  disagreeable  to  you," 
to  which  Isaac  quietly  replied,  "Not  if  you  will  permit  me  to  keep 
to  the  windward  of  you."  I  looked  for  at  least  a  gentle  reprimand, 
but  nothing  more  was  said  on  the  subject,  and  we  walked  and 
talked  and  greatly  enjoyed  our  morning  constitutional.  Smoking 
was  regarded  by  him  as  a  terribly  disagreeable  habit,  and  one  who 
used  tobacco  in  a  still  more  offensive  way — I  question  if  he  ever 
encountered  such — would  have  shocked  every  fiber  of  his  phys- 
ical and  spiritual  nature.  My  brother's  extreme  repugnance  to 
tobacco  was  both  physiological  and  ethical,  and  was  probably  due 
less  to  prejudice  than  to  the  keenness  of  his  olfactory  powers. 
He  was  like  Thoreau,  who  also  had  a  great  aversion  to  smoking, 
of  whom  it  is  said  that,  while  living  as  a  recluse  at  Walden,  he 
would  be  notified  of  the  passage  of  a  traveler  along  the  highway, 
sixty  rods  off,  by  the  sc£nt  of  his  pipe. 

Isaac  Pitman  was  disinterested  and  generous  to  a  fault ;  but, 
like  all  things  human,  his  generosity  had  its  limitations.  It  is 
equally  true  that  he  was  determined  and  exacting  in  his  con- 
victions, and  he  conscientiously  made  his  conduct  square  with 
his  belief.  This,  of  course,  was  not  always  agreeable  to  those 
who  worked  with  him,  and  whose  convictions,  though  different, 
were  entertained  with  equal  sincerity.  He  seemed  to  believe 
that  the  phonetic  scheme  of  writing  and  printing  had  been  com- 
mitted to  his  special  charge,  and  that  its  development  was  his 
assigned  work.  He  acted  as  if  persuaded  that  he  was  com- 
missioned with  an  almost  exclusive  right  to  determine  its  mani- 
fold details  and  mode  of  promulgation.  It  would  be  unjust  to 
his  memory  not  to  insist  that  he  was  unconscious  of  his  auto- 
cratic rule.  His  convictions  were  deep  and  decided,  and  that 
only  which  appeared  for  the  time  truest  and  best  would  he 
tolerate.  No  sacrifice  was  too  great  to  be  rid  of  a  blemish ;  no 
effort  too  great  to  secure  an  improvement,  and  no  persistence 


92  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

too  prolonged  to  gain  a  victory  for  what  he  regarded  as  the  truth 
and  the  right.  He  was  not  always  logical,  for  the  "best"  today 
might  be  succeeded  by  a  "better"  on  the  morrow,  and  the 
"foundations  of  truth,"  sound  from  today's  examination,  might 
be  discovered  to  need  repairs  before  the  next  month's  magazines 
were  put  to  press.  But  he  consistently  carried  out  his  belief, 
and  generally  at  a  pecuniary  sacrifice.  The  belief  of  today 
would  be  no  criterion  of  his  convictions  on  the  morrow,  and  the 
latter  decision  might  prove  more  costly  than  preceding  ones,  but 
it  would  be  as  consistently  carried  out,  and  a  kind  Providence 
was  trusted  in  some,  for  the  time  being,  unseen  way,  to  take 
charge  of  that  looming  type  or  paper  bill,  and  the  compositors' 
and  printers'  wages,  on  the  coming  Saturday.  But,  oh,  the 
pitiful  strain  of  those  years  of  ever-present,  ever-pressing  poverty! 
It  might  have  been  an  unconscious  spur  to  goad  him,  and  keep 
him  at  his  racing  pace ;  but  the  mental  strain  of  this  brooding 
incubus  of  debt — the  subject  of  very  frequent  mention  in  the 
hundreds  of  his  letters  lying  at  this  moment  before  me — would 
have  been  too  much  for  the  mental  balance  of  any  soul  endowed 
with  less  energy,  conscientiousness,  and  hope.  My  brother  was 
a  bundle  of  activities,  and  as  they  were  directed  to  one  end,  they 
found  exercise  in  endless  experiments  with  the  possibilities  of 
his  beloved  scheme.  How  often  have  I  heard  from  his  stanchest 
friends,  "What  does  Isaac  Pitman  mean  by  these  constant 
changes?"  There  was  but  one  reply:  "A  seeming  improvement 
presented  itself,  and  he  was  bound  to  carry  it  out."  My  brother 
Henry,  writing  to  me  from  Bath,  10  October,  1851,  while  I  was 
engaged  in  lecturing  on  and  teaching  the  perfected  (?)  Phonog- 
raphy, said:  "I  am  learning,  or  trying  to  learn,  every  day  that  it 
is  useless  to  attempt  to  check  Isaac's  irresistible  determination 
to  have  his  own  way.  Mr.  Reed  and  myself,  by  an  apparent 
acquiescence,  induced  him  to  give  up  a  half-dozen  of  the  pro- 
posed phonographic  changes.  It  would  amuse,  if  it  did  not 
grieve  you,  to  see  the  number  of  alterations  which  are  made  in 
in  one  day  in  the  'Proposals.'"  This,  we  suppose,  referred  to 
the  MS.  for  the  lithograph  magazine,  which  was,  for  a  time,  pub- 
lished under  this  title  and  circulated  among  the  leading  English 
and  American  phonographers,  containing  discussions  on  the 
improvements  which  are  incorporated  in  the  tenth  edition  of  the 
system,  and  which,  with  the  exception  of  the  inversion  of  the 


PHYSICAL  AND  MENTAL   TRAITS.  93 

first  and  third  vowels,  is  substantially  the  American  Phonography 
of  today.  Phonography  might  not  have  been  as  near  perfection 
as  it  now  is,  had  it  not  been  for  the  constant  experimenting  and 
trial  that  were  given  the  possible  "changes  for  the  better"  by 
its  indefatigable  inventor ;  but  the  present  generation  can  have 
but  a  faint  idea  of  the  commotion  in  the  phonographic  world,  the 
inconvenience  to  teachers  of  the  art,  and  the  annoyances  to  prac- 
tical phonographers,  as  well  as  to  the  teachers  of  phonetic  read- 
ing, that  arose  from  iny  brother's  undue  haste  in  incorporating 
changes  and  supposed  improvements  into  the  system,  without 
sufficient  consideration  and  trial. 

But  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  in  the  endless  discussions  of 
the  English  and  American  Phonetic  Councils  that  were  carried 
on  from  1844  to  1851,  to  whom  disputed  points  in  Phonography 
and  Phonotypy  were  submitted,  Isaac  Pitman  was  always  patiently 
and  calmly,  if  provokingly,  serene.  He  was  fair  in  argument; 
he  never  used  a  harsh  or  cutting  phrase,  but  urged  his  views 
with  seeming  deference  to  the  opinions  of  others.  He  never, 
however,  yielded  a  point  which,  for  the  time  being,  seemed  best 
and  most  desirable.  He  patiently  continued  the  discussion  until 
his  opponents  were  silent — possibly  wearied — or  convinced,  and 
his  best  friends,  whether  agreeing  or  disagreeing  with  him,  were 
in  the  habit  of  saying,  "  Isaac  always  carries  his  point."  The 
truth  is,  he  simply  continued  the  discussion,  arguing  for  the 
fitting  thing,  and  delayed  the  voting, — when  a  vote  was  to  decide 
the  question, — until  his  point  was  gained.  Better  that  the 
heavens  were  rent  in  twain  than  that  any  blemish  should  mar 
the  symmetry  of  his  beloved  scheme !  He  labored  and  argued 
from  an  instinctive,  irresistible  impulse,  until  the  real  or  imagi- 
nary blemish  was  removed  and  the  fitting  thing  accepted  and 
installed.  Those  who  agreed  with  him  found  him  a  redoubtable 
leader;  those  who  disagreed  were  often  disciplined  into  line  by 
his  chilling  and  unswerving  conscientiousness — a  condition  of 
mind  which,  under  human  limitations,  is  as  liable  to  be  wrong 
as  right.  I  could  not  give  a  better  illustrative  example  of  Isaac 
Pitman's  perseverance,  changefulness,  and  conscientious  following 
of  his  convictions,  notwithstanding  the  sacrifice  it  entailed,  than 
by  mentioning  that  in  the  publication  of  "Milton's  Paradise  Lost," 
one  of  the  first  of  his  Phonotypic  books,  portions  of  the  work, 
varying  from  8  pages  (one  form)  to  96  pages,  were  set  up  and 


94  SfA  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


V 


Dr  Thomas  Hill,  <  ;•  '/'/< <.  /•  <  fy 
*$ty  experience,  founded  upou  fiveyearsl 
<•(• ;. f /</;</  ^5f  cfthe^fhondic  'system, 
both  in  mu  #/v  alt  <  vperienee.and 

*-r*        ~4    '     /*     ^  I  •          /"l^/*    7.1 7 

^7^  th&rUM,ie:betiooi&  of  Tralt/iam,  i? 
that  it  if  Yastly  superior  to  the  ordi- 
nary, crAB  Cm  ode  of  teaching  chil- 
dren to  read.  It  renders  fheciirntf 
associations  of  the  child  with  it?  ' 
bock  pleaearit.  It  cidlivaiu 
fid  habil  of  analysis  of$0und,and 
improves  the  ear.  It  corrects  bad 
enun ei ation  and pronndd pronun- 
ciation, and  pro  Cine  ee  conformity 
to  the  highest  standard  of  ofthoepu. 
ItijiYes  JJLS  the  onli^  rcasontini^ 
hope  of  teaching  //"t-;vvV/v  born] 
adults  to  read  English.  I  kirn 
thai  a  thorough  triaun  scJwol  will 
proYe  it  to  be  the  beet  means  ever^ 
derived  forte 


printed,  and  then,  in  consequence  of  some  improvement  he 
thought  should  be  made  in  the  forms  of  certain  phonotypic  let- 
ters, they  were  canceled  and  thrown  aside  as  waste  paper,  and 
these  cancellations  of  printed  portions  of  an  edition  of  a  thousand 
copies,  and  then  recommencements  of  the  work,  occurred  not 
less  than  nine  times  before  the  book  was  actually  printed  and 
ready  for  the  binder. 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  career  as  student,  clerk,  schoolmaster, 
preacher,  lover,  husband,  Bible  corrector,  inventor,  author, 
journalist,  publisher,  compositor,  proof  reader,  dictionary 
compiler,  lithographic-transler  writer,  and  indefatigable  worker 
generally,  was,  in  its  varied  phrases,  a  striking  manifestation  of  an 
altruistic  spirit  laboring  unceasingly  for  the  benefit  of  others. 
Personal  gain  or  honor  as  a  reward  for  what  he  did  was  as 
unsought  and  unthought  of,  and  as  foreign  to  his  nature,  as  it 
would  be  for  a  loving  mother  to  expect  reward  for  nurturing  her 
child.  His  delight  and  satisfaction  were  in  the  performance  of 
the  duty  that  presented  itself,  and  his  energy  and  eagerness  were 
always  proportioned  to  the  task  undertaken.  My  brother  never 
would  have  accomplished  what  he  did  in  his  long  life  of  labor, 
or  have  made  what  to  others  seemed  unending  self-sacrifices,  had 
he  not  been  upheld  by  an  enthusiasm  that  never  forsook  him, 
and  which  was  based  on  an  abiding  faith  in  the  necessit}-  and 
usefulness  of  the  work  that  had  fallen  to  his  lot.  But  it  must 
be  confessed  that  his  unsophisticated  and  uncalculating  nature 
often  made  success  fall  short  of  what  it  might  have  been  had  his 
efforts  been  spiced  with  a  soupcon  of  worldly  calculation.  The 
first  edition  of  Phonography,  issued  in  1 840,  the  result  of  the  pre- 
ceding three  years  of  incessant  experiment  in  completing,  as  he 
thought,  the  crude  Stenographic  Soundhand  of  1837,  was  published 
at  one  penny,  that  it  might,  as  the  author  desired,  be  brought 
within  the  reach  of  every  school  boy  in  the  land.  The  entire  sys- 
tem, with  explanation  and  exercises,  was  crowded  into  a  six-by- 
eight  sheet  of  exceedingly  fine  steel  engraving,  the  sheet  contain- 

95   . 


96  SfR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

ing  on  its  margin  the  announcement  that  the  author  would  correct 
the  exercises  of  learners  through  the  post  gratuitously.  Generous, 
indeed,  but  measurably  futile,  for  the  explanations,  examples,  and 
exercises  were  presented  with  such  microscopic  fineness,  that 
probably  not  more  than  one  in  fifty  of  persons  of  ordinary  intel- 
ligence would  possess  the  ability  and  industry  necessary  to 
unravel  so  intricate  a  presentation.  He  overlooked  the  fact  that 
others  were  not  so  clear-sighted  as  himself,  or  that  in  general 
they  possessed  about  one-tenth  of  his  untiring  industry.  He 
seemed  unable  to  comprehend  the  narrow  limits  of  people  of 
average  ability.  Hence  his  presentation  of  the  system  in  the  first 
and  second  editions  of  his  Manual  was  far  from  being  as  simple 
and  sequential  as  is  desirable  in  an  instruction  book.  It  was  not 
until  my  brother  Joseph  and  I  began  to  teach  Phonography  that 
we  perceived  the  necessity  of  a  simpler  and  more  methodical  pre- 
sentation of  the  art,  and  it  fell  to  my  lot  to  compile  the  necessary 
instruction  books.  I  never  thought  it  necessary  or  desired  to 
make  this  fact  known  till  the  suit  of  A.  J.  Graham  was  instituted 
against  me,  when  he  sought  to  deprive  me  of  the  right  to  publish 
my  own  Phonographic  books.  I  then  put  my  brother's  letters  in 
evidence  to  show  that  I  was  not  only  entitled  to  the  copyright  of 
my  own  books,  but  that  I  was  the  author  of  some  of  the  leading 
English  text  books.  My  brother  was  the  inventor  of  the  system, 
and  I  was  the  compiler  of  several  editions  of  his  Class  Book, 
afterwards  called  the  Instructor,  and  of  two  editions  of  his  Manual 
of  Phonography. 

My  brother's  daily  labors  for  many  years  would  average  fif- 
teen hours  of  close,  stern  application  to  duty,  but  he  did  not  feel 
it  as  such.  It  was  a  life  of  self-sacrifice,  but  he  knew  it  not.  He 
sacrificed  himself,  and  he  looked  for  self-sacrifice  from  others,  and 
in  the  degree  in  which  others  were  esteemed  and  were  dear  to 
him.  After  ten  years  of  public  lecturing  and  teaching  in  Great 
Britain,  my  brother  was  very  desirous  that  I  should  come  to  this 
country  to  further  extend  Phonography  and  the  Phonetic  Reform, 
and  to  engage  in  the  publication  of  works  that  should  do  less 
discredit  to  the  cause  than  most  of  those  which  had  been  issued 
here  prior  to  that  time.  He  sent  me,  my  wife,  and  two  infant 
children  across  the  Atlantic  as  steerage  passengers  in  the  midst  of 
winter,  because  it  seemed  to  him  necessary  that  my  advocac}'  of 
the  phonetic  reform  here  should  not  be  longer  delayed.  My  wife 


HIS  DAILY  WORK.  97 

was  a  delicately  nurtured  and  highly  endowed  soul,  to  whom  he 
was  devotedly  attached,  and  when  I  think  that  he  had  ten  years 
more  experience  than  I,  it  amazes  me  that  his  enthusiasm  should 
have  demanded  such  a  sacrifice  from  her  and  from  me.  I  under- 
took the  mission  with  a  willing  alacrity  that  seems  now  quite 
incomprehensible.  The  novelty  ot  the  voyage  concealed  its  dis- 
comforts. Our  vessel  was  run  into  by  a  returning  steamer 
before  we  left  the  Mersey,  and  we  stopped  several  days  to  repair 
the  gapping  rent  made  in  our  vessel's  side,  fortunately  just  above 
the  water  line.  The  voyage  was  long  and  tempestuous.  The 
care  of  my  three  charges  filled  my  whole  time  with  necessary  and 
not  unwelcome  duties.  My  wife  and  infant  child  were  located  in 
a  different  and  pleasanter  part  of  the  vessel,  and  my  two-year-old 
daughter,  Agnes,  was  left  wholly  to  my  charge.  So  incessantly 
were  my  attentions  required  that  I  did  not  open  a  book,  maga- 
zine, or  paper  during  the  voyage,  which  extended  to  thirty  days. 
But  the  passage  seemed  to  me  a  holiday,  and  a  season  of  exhila- 
ration that  recognized  neither  danger  nor  discomfort.  Such  was 
the  effect  of  health,  hope,  and  buoyant  spirits.  My  wife,  who  had 
scarcely  left  her  berth  during  the  entire  passage,  bore  the  trials 
of  the  voyage  with  a  brave  and  cheerful  spirit ;  not  a  syllable  of 
complaint  or  suggestion  of  dissatisfaction  was  uttered.  The  prep- 
aration of  food  for  my  infant  child,  which  was  done  in  the  cook's 
galley,  was  a  feat  which  frequently  taxed  my  utmost  dexterity. 
An  occasional  half-crown  to  the  cook  kept  me  on  friendly  terms 
with  him,  and  his  fires  were  at  my  disposal  at  all  times  day  and 
night.  The  preparation  of  the  infant's  food  over  the  galley  fire 
during  a  storm  was  a  feat  of  skill,  and  carrying  the  hot  food  to  a 
distant  berth  along  the  deck  of  a  rolling  and  pitching  steamer 
was,  in  stormy  times,  not  often  accomplished  till  two  or  some- 
times three  separate  attempts  had  been  made,  and  as  many  of  my 
amateur  efforts  at  cookery  had  been  tempest-tossed  and  lost.  The 
struggle  of  the  vessel  as  it  made  headway  through  the  wild  tur- 
moil of  the  heaving  sea  had  a  strange  fascination  for  me,  and 
served  to  arouse  extra  interest  and  energy  in  overcoming  the  dif- 
ficulty attending  the  novel  duties  that  fell  to  my  lot.  We  were 
excited  and  overjoyed  to  reach  the  shores  of  the  new  world,  and 
on  a  genial,  sunshiny  day  in  January,  1853,  such  a  day  as  is  almost 
unknown  in  England  in  winter, — and  the  novelty  of  which  I 
seemed  to  enjoy  for  the  first  time  in  my  life — we  plowed  our  way 


98  S/K  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

up  the  Delaware  through  four  inches  of  unbroken  ice,  and  landed 
on  the  evening  of  the  day.  Most  of  the  passengers  left  the  vessel 
immediately  upon  touching  shore,  but  we  remained  on  board 
that  night.  In  the  early  morning  I  stepped  ashore,  and  no  one 
being  near,  I  reverently  knelt  and  kissed  the  blessed  land  I  had 
reached,  less  from  a  sense  of  danger  escaped,  than  in  joyous  antic- 
ipation of  the  duties  and  occupation  that  the  new  world  would 
open  xi  p  to  me. 

The  practical  phase  of  Isaac  Pitman's  life  is  told  in  a  charac- 
teristic pen  sketch  by  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  which  appeared  in 
Welden's  Register  at  the  time  my  brother  was  occupying  the 
building  in  Parsonage  Lane.  The  writer  says:  "If  we  were  asked 
to  name  the  most  diligent  and  hard  working  man  we  know,  it 
would  be  Isaac  Pitman.  It  is  a  treat  to  visit  his  printing  office 
in  Bath.  Printing  offices  are  usually  very  dirty  and  untidy  places, 
but  Mr.  Pitman's  office,  save  for  the  furniture,  might  be  a  lady's 
drawing  room.  Everything  is  in  what  for  some  unknown  reason 
is  called  'apple  pie'  order.  In  a  large  room  sits  Mr.  Pitman  him- 
self, writing  an  article,  reading  a  proof,  or  answering  a  letter. 
His  correspondence  is  immense,  letters  and  papers  flow  in  upon 
him  from  every  part  of  the  world;  he  attends  to  all  himself. 
Those  who  write  to  him  in  ordinary  handwriting  he  answers  in 
long-hand  or  in  phonetic  spelling,  but  the  mass  of  his  corre- 
spondence is  in  Phonography,  and  the  speed  and  ease  with  which 
he  writes  enables  him  to  get  through  an  amount  of  work  which 
would  else  seem  fabulous.  We  wish  we  could  reproduce  one  of 
Mr.  Pitman's  phonographic  letters  on  this  page.  Written  on  a 
scrap  of  ruled  paper  half  the  size  of  an  ordinary  page  of  note  paper 
would  be  seen  a  series  of  lines,  circles,  and  dots,  sharp  and  deli- 
cate as  if  traced  by  a  fairy,  and  containing  as  much  matter  as  an 
ordinary  letter  of  four  pages.  A  most  courteous  correspondent,  he 

commences  in  the  ancient  style,  'Isaac  Pitman  to  Mr. ,  or  Mrs. 

,  or  Miss '  as  it  may  be,  and  goes  on  to  say  what  is  neces- 
sary in  a  free,  kindly,  and  concise  style,  closing  his  letter  with  the 
simple  word, 'Fare well.'  Letters  in  this  way  he  writes  off  by  the 
score,  without  haste  and  with  an  ease  which  fills  one  used  to 
drudge  with  the  pen  in  the  customary  fashion  with  pity  for  his 
own  sad  lot. 

"Mr.  Pitman  carries  in  his  printing  office  the  regime  of  the 
schoolmaster  ;  he  is  a  strict  disciplinarian.  Xo  talking  is  allowed 


B.  0. 

LAWYER 
DALLAS,  TEXAS 

HIS  DAILY  WORK.  99 

beyond  necessary  questions  and  orders,  and  the  quiet  is  unbroken 
except  by  the  click  of  the  type  or  the  packing  of  parsels  for  the 
carrier  or  the  post.  We  have  sometimes  amused  ourselves  with 
drawing  comparisons  between  Isaac  Pitman  and  John  Wesley, 
and  did  we  believe  in  transmigration  of  souls,  we  might  imagine 
that  the  soul  of  John  Wesley  had  left  its  'world  parish'  to  write 
Shorthand  and  persuade  Englishmen  to  spell  phonetically. 
Unlike  Wesley,  Pitman  is  somewhat  tall,  but,  like  him,  he  is  spare 
and  muscular,  with  bright  eyes  and  keen  face  and  rapid  motions. 
Like  Wesley,  his  habits  are  regular  and' almost  ascetic.  He  goes 
to  bed  early  and  rises  early,  summer  and  winter,  and  may  invari- 
ably be  found  posted  at  his  desk  by  six  in  the  morning.  Except 
for  the  progress  of  his  work,  he  seems  to  have  no  care  in  the 
world.  He  sees  no  company;  he  seldom  dines  from  home  or 
pays  visits,  and,  first  in  the  office  in  the  morning,  he  is  last  to 
leave  at  night.  He  delights  in  walking  exercise,  and  scampers 
over  miles  of  country  with  the  same  ease  that  his  pen  goes  over 
paper.  Like  Wesley,  he  is  very  abstemious ;  wine,  beer,  or  spirits 
of  any  kind  never  pass  his  lips,  nor  fish,  flesh,  nor  fowl.  For  years 
he  has  been  a  strict  vegetarian,  and  but  for  a  cold  now  and  then 
he  has  enjoyed  perfect  health.  As  if  his  Shorthand  and  phonetic 
printing  were  not  enough  to  task  all  his  powers,  he  preaches  each 
Sunday  in  a  little  Chapel  at  Twerton,  a  village  two  miles  from 
Bath.  Like  Wesley,  he  has  no  love  for  money  save  for  its  uses 
in  promoting  his  ends.  His  personal  wants  are  few  and  simple, 
and  every  penny  beyond  what  is  required  for  them  is  devoted  to 
the  phonetic  propaganda.  Like  Wesley  he  has  a  governing  and 
despotic  temper.  In  all  things  he  takes  his  own  way.  He  hears 
the  advice  of  a  disciple  in  the  blandest  and  most  candid  spirit. 
The  disciple  thinks  surely  never  was  a  man  more  pliable  than 
this.  But  if  he  observes  carefully,  he  will  discover  he  has  made 
no  progress.  Somehow,  he  will  find  that  Pitman  has  not  changed 
his  mind,  and  has  rejected  his  disciple's  advice,  but  yet  so  kindly 
that  the  rejection  gives  no  pain,  but  almost  pleasure.  His  alter- 
ations in  Phonotypy  and  Phonography  have  usually  been  pro- 
posed in  the  face  of  strong  opposition,  but  he  has  always  carried 
them.  Consciously  or  unconsciously  he  makes  up  his  mind  as  to 
what  ought  to  be  done,  and  though  he  undergoes  much  palaver 
with  all  the  appearance  of  being  affected  by  it,  he  ends  in  execu- 
ting his  program  to  the  final  letter.  Alternately  he  is  accused  of 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


fickleness  and  obstinacy  ;  of  fickleness,  because  when  he  sees,  or 
fancies  he  sees,  a  possible  improvement,  he  will  pull  down  any 
amount  of  building  to  make  room  for  it;  and  of  obstinacy, 
because  what  he  thinks  right  he  does,  whatever  be  the  outer}".'' 


IF  Isaac  Pitman, 
with  his  acute 
and  almost  mor- 
bid sense  of  duty, 
had  been  of  an  irrita- 
ble temperament;  had 
he  eaten  and  drank  as 
the  average  man  o  f 
literary  and  artistic 
temperament  d  o  e  s  ; 
had  he  failed  to  com- 
ply with  the  strictest 
health  conditions  he 
would  probably  have 
ended  his  life  in  a 
lunatic  asylum.  This 
is  often  the  fate  of  the 
too-earnest  worker, 
who  unduly  taxes 
some  limited  portion 
of  h  i  s  brain  power. 
Those  who  suppose 
that  the  discussion  of 
questions  of  phonetic 
science  and  graphic 
art,  and  the  reconcile- 
ment  of  conflicting 

views  thereon,  are  not 

matters    to    arouse 

caustic  words  and  excited  feelings,  are  ignorant  of  the  evolution- 
ary steps  that  have  led  to  the  development  of  the  phonetic  arts, 
and  given  Isaac  Pitman's  name  a  place  in  the  history  of  educa- 
tional progress.  For  many  years  in  the  early  stages  of  the  pho- 
netic movement  there  existed  a  Phonetic  Council,  consisting  of 
twelve  to  twenty  members,  who,  by  their  general  intelligence  and 
special  study  of  phonetics,  were  supposed  to  be  able  to  give  an 
intelligent  opinion  on  matters  that  should  be  submitted  to  their 
decision.  Dr.  Alexander  John  Ellis  was  president  of  the  Council, 
and  my  brother  and  I  were  members.  The  communications  of 
the  members,  usually  written  in  phonography,  were  passed  round 
to  members  by  mail,  as  an  ever-circulating  magazine. 

Matters  of  science  and  practical  art  one  would  suppose  might 


102  SfR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

be  discussed  with  calm  impartiality ;  but  phonetic  questions  can- 
not be  considered  apart  from  the  physical  as  well  as  mental  idio- 
syncrasies of  the  writer,  and  the  result  in  our  case  was  that  the 
communications  of  some  of  the  members  were  frequently  of  the 
most  emphatic  and  dogmatic  character,  and  occasionally  members' 
would  be  so  firmly  convinced  of  the  correctness  of  their  opinions 
that  they  would  not  allow  that  a  contrary  opinion  could  be  enter- 
tained by  any  sane  person,  or  even  by  one  of  ordinary  intelligence. 
Among  the  questions  discussed  were  such  as  the  pronunciation  of 
certain  words  and  classes  of  words ;  what  vowels  should  be  used 
in  certain  unaccented  syllables ;  the  division  of  syllables,  and  the 
most  desirable  typic,  script,  and  graphic  representations  of  sounds; 
yet  these  and  like  questions  were  sometimes  discussed  with  such 
savage  gravity,  that  on  one  occasion  a  member  seriously  inquired, 
"Is  the  discussion  of  phonetic  science  necessarily  inseparable 
from  insanity?"  The  grim  humor  of  the  query  was  not  lost  upon 
the  Council,  and  I  think  that  in  subsequent  years  we  endeavored 
to  settle  phonetic  questions  with  a  little  less  of  the  zealous  acri- 
mony which  too  often  distinguishes  religious  and  political  dis- 
cussions. 

Of  all  men  I  have  known,  Isaac  Pitman  stood  alone  in  the 
placid,  self-centered  equilibrium  with  which  he  performed  his 
never-ending  labors,  and  for  the  earnest  persistence  and  provok- 
ing calmness  he  maintained  through  these  years  of  discussion. 
Beyond  doubt,  his  temperate  diet  and  regular  and  ascetic  habits 
were  conducive  to  a  long  continuance  of  his  unremitting  toil. 
His  example  is  of  interest  as  affording  a  contrast  to  the  fate  of 
some  other  one-idead  men  of  unusual  capacity,  whose  thinking 
and  work  have  ended  in  physical  and  mental  disaster.  It  is  sad- 
dening to  recall  the  numerous  instances  where  an  all-absorbing 
idea,  pursued  with  unflagging  energy,  neglectful  of  other  condi- 
tions necessary  to  healthy  equilibrium,  has  resulted  in  physical 
and  mental  wreck.  A  late  striking  example  is  that  of  the  grand 
artist  Munkacs)',  who,  though  he  commenced  life  and  passed  early 
manhood  in  poverty  and  a  struggle  to  live,  had  in  middle  life  pro- 
duced work  that  commanded  admiration,  abundant  reward,  and 
abounding  honors ;  but  yielding  to  the  ambition  to  do  more  and 
better  work,  and  with  grudging  impatience  of  his  powers,  even  at 
their  highest  strain,  he  labored  on  to  end  life  with  a  body  pros- 
trate and  a  mind  sunk  in  the  oblivion  of  madness.  The  marvelous 


SPENDING   VS.  WRECKING  LIFE.  103 

feats  and  brilliant  career  of  Paul  Morphy,  ending  in  a  mental 
collapse,  are  recalled  by  the  more  recent  parallel  case  of  the  cele- 
brated chess-player,  Steinitz,  who,  for  a  time,  defeated  every  world- 
renowned  player,  of  whom  it  is  said  that  he  thought  chess, 
dreamed  chess,  and  lived  in  a  world  where  the  only  visible  object 
was  a  chess-board ;  but  at  last  meeting  defeat  from  a  younger 
player,  L,asker,  the  tension  of  an  overtaxed  brain  suddenly  gave 
way,  and  Steinitz  became  demented.  Equally  pitiful,  but  more 
striking,  is  the  example  of  the  literary  man,  Albert  Ross,  whose 
overmastering  desire  was  a  greed  for  money.  To  this  end  he 
wrote  obscene  novels  that  brought  him  wealth;  with  this  he 
speculated,  and  the  wealth  thus  accidently  gained  only  stimulated 
him  to  speculate  for  more.  His  success  ended  in  a  madhouse, 
where  he  died  bewailing  his  imagined  poverty,  and  mumbling 
curses  on  the  ill-luck  that  had  made  him  a  pauper. 

When  I  recall  the  many  personal  friends  whose  lives  have 
been  shortened,  if  not  sacrificed,  by  faithful  devotion  to  duty  in 
some  narrow  rut  that  modern  life  and  competitive  antagonism 
have  made  a  necessity,  I  am  filled  with  gratitude  that  I  inherited 
some  of  my  father's  ingenuity,  which,  though  it  has  prevented  me 
from  becoming  rich  and  being  knighted,  has  made  me  a  prover- 
bial jack  of  many  trades,  yielding  satisfactions  and  delights  com- 
pared with  which  riches  and  knighthood  would  be  a  barren  mock- 
ery. My  father  was  a  man  of  varied  and  inventive  powers.  He 
rarely  used  a  machine  in  his  manufactory  for  any  length  of  time 
that  he  did  not  alter  and  improve.  Three  of  the  boys  and  one  of 
the  girls  inherited  father's  inventive  and  constructive  ability. 
Isaac  possessed  no  mechanical  ingenuity.  He  had  accurate  vis- 
ion and  a  delicate  and  precise  manual  touch,  but  his  bent  was 
literary,  and  that  created  and  settled  his  career,  and  his  devotion 
to  duty,  which  he  inherited  from  mother,  made  life  a  success.  His 
life,  however,  was  not  an  all-round  success.  And  whose  is?  His 
devotion  to  one  idea  made  his  life  an  automatic  clerkship,  pur- 
sued with  a  conscientious  zeal  we  have  never  known  equalled. 
Most  fortunate  for  him  it  was  that  he  loved  his  work ;  his  work 
was  his  pleasure,  and  his  only  pleasure  was  his  work.  His  life 
was  beautiful  because  his  labor  was  so  wholly  unselfish.  It 
brought  him  wealth  and  honor  in  the  end,  but  they  were  unsought, 
and  uncared-for  except  as  means  to  useful  ends ;  but  if  poverty, 
neglect,  and  persecution  had  been  the  sacrifice  required  of  him  to 


io4          SSX  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

accomplish  his  work,  they  would  have  been  met  with  equal  ear- 
nestness and  equanimity. 

He  was  somewhat  deficient  in  esthetic  taste.  He  was  pre- 
cise, orderly,  methodical  and  clean  in  body  and  mind,  and  with  a 
simplicity  and  directness  of  soul  that  we  look  for  only  in  the 
innocency  of  childhood.  But  he  had  little  appreciation  of,  or  care 
for,  things  of  beauty,  or  of  fine  art  works,  especially  if  they  called 
up  associations  with  which  he  was  not  in  sympathy.  I  recall, 
when  a  youth  and  living  in  his  family,  looking  again  and  again 
with  great  interest  at  a  precious  vellum  manuscript,  rich  in  its 
gold  and  color  illumination,  but  which  lay  totally  uncared-for 
amid  a  heap  of  valueless  papers  in  the  sitting-room  cupboard. 
This,  and  other  like  relics  came  into  Isaac's  home  possessions 
from  his  wife,  whose  first  husband  was  a  man  of  great  taste  and 

culture. 

If  from  my  life  were  abstracted  the  experiences  and  satisfac- 
tions I  have  enjoyed  from  varied  labors,  and  which  were  wholly 
unknown  to  my  brother,  I  should  seem  not  to  have  commenced 
to  live.  And  when  I  think  how  limited  were  the  faculties  my 
brother  used  in  this  life,  and  how  much  of  his  fine  nature  remained 
undeveloped,  I  can  only  hope  there  will  be  no  Phonography 
and  no  unaccomplished  Phonetic  Reform  in  the  other  life  to  mo- 
nopolize his  intellect  and  heart. 


is  a  type  of  character  occasionally  met  with  in  the 
world  that  is  honest,  direct,  and  gentle,  but  uncompro- 
mising ;  not  often  gifted  with  intellectual  energy,  and  not 
necessarily  deficient  in  this  respect,  but  almost  wholly  without 
worldly  prudence  and  that  calculating  circumspection,  which  is 
born  of  experience.  This  typical  character,  which  nineteenth 
century  civilization  tends  to  render  still  more  rare,  is  yet  without 
a  name.  We  call  its  mental  and  moral  opposite  Sophist,  or  b)- 
its  older  form  Sophister,  that  is,  one  who  is  plausible  that  he  may 
impose,  who  would  make  the  false  seem  true,  and  the  worse  to 
appear  the  better  cause;  the  man  whose  ideal  is  the  success 
of  Number  One.  The  simple,  uncompromising,  transparent 
type  of  character, — perhaps  because  it  is  so  rare, — we  are  able  to 
designate  only  generically,  and  call  its  exemplars  the  Unsophis- 
ticated. Sophists  abound ;  sophistry  is  so  pronounced  a  factor  in 
•  the  present  stage  of  civilization,  that  worldly  success  is,  perhaps, 
oftenest  achieved  in  the  degree  in  which  man  plays  the  sophist 
and  the  egoist.  The  leading  motive  in  the  Sophist  is  selfishness  or 
egoism,  as,  in  the  Unsophisticated,  it  is  often  unselfishness  or 
altruism.  The  Unsophisticated  are  often  too  independent  and 
impractical  to  be  safely  held  up  as  models.  They  are  too  indiffer- 
ent to  the  customary  and  conventional  to  be  always  agreeable ; 
too  unconcerned  about  the  opinions  of  others  to  win  friends,  and 
too  truthful  and  honest  to  be  successful  in  a  worldly  point  of 
view;  while  the  majority,  who  accept  the  established  and  custo- 
mary as  their  guide,  and  who  assume  the  all-roundness  of  judg- 
ment which  experience  brings  to  be  the  only  safe  rule  of  life  and 
conduct,  are  apt  to  regard  the  Unsophisticated  with  more  or  less 
distrust,  if  not  contempt. 

The  Unsophisticated  seem  to  act  from  spiritual  instinct 
rather  than  from  reason  or  worldly  calculation.  Circumspect, 
prudential  conduct  is  unknown  to  them.  They  were  apparently 
born  without  the  mental  stratum  in  which  it  could  thrive ;  hence, 

105 


io6          S/R  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

kindly  disposed  persons  are  less  inclined  to  censure  the  oddities 
and  imprudencies  of  the  Unsophisticated,  than  they  are  to  toler- 
ate the  blunders  of  the  worldly  Imprudent.  The  Unsophisticated, 
so  born,  retain  their  unworldly  nature  and  transparency  of  char- 
acter in  spite  of  all  prudential  teachings.  They  may,  in  youth, 
have  been  taught  that  it  is  wisest  and  best  not  to  be  unsophisti- 
cated, but  to  act,  for  example,  towards  superior  people  with  a 
reserve  and  circumspection  needless  to  be  shown  familiars;  to 
behave  differently  in  public  from  what  they  would  in  private ;  to 
bow  low  to  rich  and  important  people,  whilst  they  might,  with 
head  erect,  look  squarely  into  the  eyes  of  their  equals.  In  vain 
are  all  such  teachings.  The  Unsophisticated  retain  the  unper- 
verted  suavity  and  transparency  of  childhood  through  life.  In 
public  and  in  private,  towards  youth  and  age,  to  patrician  and 
plebeian,  they  are  alike  uncompromising  and  innocently  fearless 
and  genial.  "It  is  easy  in  the  world,"  Emerson  says,-  "to  live  after 
the  world's  opinion ;  it  is  easy  in  solitude  to  live  after  our  own  ; 
but  the  true  man  is  he  who,  amid  the  temptations  of  the  world, 
preserves  with  perfect  freedom  the  independence  of  solitude." 
Isaac  Pitman,  from  youth  to  manhood  and  through  life  to  old  age, 
naturally  and  unconsciously  squared  his  conduct  in  accord  with 
this  golden  rule.  Some  there  are  who  regard  the  unsophisticated 
nature  as  a  blemish,  and  the  resulting  conduct  as  distressing. 
But  it  may  be  that  in  some  future  and  less  artificial  age,  unso- 
phisticated behavior  will  be  the  rule,  and,  if  not  entirely  so,  its 
manifestations  will  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of  decorative  virtue, 
impressing  people  with  a  charm  akin  to  that  we  experience  in 
contemplating  the  added  beauty  which  bloom  gives  to  the  peach, 
or  with  which  the  mind  is  gladdened  when  the  landscape,  relieved 
from  the  shadow  of  passing  clouds,  bursts  forth  in  genial  sun- 
shine. 

The  Unsophisticated  sometimes  show  a  curiously  complex 
character.  Though  they  may  be  direct,  simple,  and  gentle,  they 
are  sometimes  persistent,  and  in  a  quiet  way  dogmatic  and  self- 
assertive.  Of  intellectual  people,  I  have  never  known  a  more 
unsophisticated  person  than  Isaac  Pitman.  He  was  unimpulsive 
and  forbearing  in  word  and  action,  always  gentle  and  undemon- 
strative, yet  he  was  self-assertive,  and  in  the  cause  of  truth,  as  it 
appeared  from  his  point  of  view,  he  was  quietly  and  unyieldingly 
aggressive.  In  his  family  he  was  wholly  passive,  and  to  domes- 


THE  UNSOPHISTICATED.  107 

tic  differences,  habitually  non-assertive.  In  the  daily  conduct  of 
his  publishing  business,  when  ten  or  twenty  persons  were  work- 
ing under  his  direction,  he  was  a  strict  disciplinarian,  but*  always 
showed  a  Christian  poise  of  perfect  self-control.  With  little  or  big 
annoyances,  as  they  would  appear  to  most,  he  was  seemingly 
unmoved,  and  uniformly  calm  and  considerate.  A  hasty  word 
never  escaped  him,  nor  was  he  betrayed  into  petulance  of  speech 
by  mishaps  that  hindered  his  work  and  wasted  his  means,  though 
they  might  be  censurable  blunders  which  ordinary  thoughtfulness 
would  have  avoided. 

Unsophisticated  people  are  liable  to  be  betrayed  into  eccen- 
tricities of  behavior  to  which  the  conventional  world  is  apt  to 
make  objection.  About  a  year  after  the  publication  of  the  first 
edition  of  Isaac's  Phonetic  Shorthand,  and  when  I  was  about  six- 
teen years  of  age,  my  brother  came  to  Trowbridge,  our  native 
town,  to  deliver  a  free  lecture  on  his  newly-invented  system.  A 
good-sized  audience  welcomed  him,  and  the  lecture  was  meas- 
urably successful,  but  not  on  the  whole  satisfactory,  as  it  seemed 
to  me.  I  remember  calling  my  brother  to  account,  on  our  return 
home  after  the  lecture,  for  his  non-observance  of  what,  to  my 
youthful  comprehension,  appeared  to  be  the  proprieties  of  the 
occasion.  This,  among  other  things:  towards  the  close  of  the 
lecture,  after  writing  a  passage  which  had  been  read  to  him  to 
show  the  practicability  of  Phonography  for  verbatim  reporting, 
he  had  lain  his  paper  down  on  the  table,  and  advancing  to  the 
front  of  the  platform,  while  holding  the  pen  in  his  hand  and  con- 
tinuing his  explanatory  talk,  had  deliberately  raised  his  swallow- 
built  coat-tail,  and,  bringing  it  forward  as  far  as  its  length  would 
permit,  had  carefully  wiped  his  pen  before  returning  it  to  his  vest 
pocket.  On  my  reminding  him  of  what  I  thought  should  have 
been  avoided  before  a  public  assemblage,  he  smilingly  said, "Why 
did  I?  Well,  there  was  nothing  else  at  hand  to  wipe  it  on ;"  and 
with  that  the  unsophisticated  soul  disposed  of  the  indiscretion  as 
though  it  never  had  occurred,  or,  if  it  had,  it  was  not  worth 
recalling. 

I  retain  to  this  day  the  remembrance  of  a  certain  uneasiness 
I  felt  during  the  greater  part  of  the  lecture.  Isaac  was  not  in  the 
least  nervous  or  awed  by  the  audience.  I  remember  thinking 
that  had  the  assemblage  been  composed  of  the  most  awe-inspir- 
ing personages  I  had  ever  read  of,  such  as  magistrates,  judges, 


io8          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

archbishops,  princes,  or  kings,  I  did  not  believe  my  brother 
would  have  been  in  the  least  abashed  in  the  delivery  of  his  mes- 
sage. But  there  was  little  effectiveness  in  his  utterances,  and  he 
lacked  repose  and  dignity.  His  earnestness  of  speech  was  accom- 
panied by  a  certain  restlessness  which  made  one  wish  that  he 
knew  the  virtue  of  a  pause.  The  gravest  objection  to  the  lecture, 
but  one  which  I  did  not  mention  to  him,  was  my  brother's  lack 
of  a  lecturing  voice.  He  was  unimpressive,  because  his  voice 
lacked  resonance,  that  quality  which,  when  combined  with  agree- 
able modulation,  makes  public  speaking  impressive.  Isaac's 
serious,  retiring  kind  of  life  that  he  led  as  a  youth  had  its  disad- 
vantages. It  prevented  the  development  of  the  vocal  organs, 
which  the  shouts,  loud  talk  of  sports,  and  the  aspirated  speech  of 
misunderstandings  and  quarrels  of  the  average  youth,  are  so  well 
calculated  to  develop. 

My  brother's  lecture  recalled  the  dissatisfaction  I  felt  the 
first,  and  only  previous,  time  I  heard  him  speak  in  public.  When 
I  was  about  ten  or  eleven  years  old  I  accompanied  my  father  to 
hear  Isaac  preach  from  the  Methodist  pulpit  of  our  native  town. 
It  was  on  the  occasion  of  my  brother's  return  home  from  school 
teaching,  to  spend  his  Christmas  holidays.  A  sermon  by  Isaac 
was  a  great  event  in  our  family,  for  a  Preacher  was  then  con- 
sidered a  very  important  and  imposing  personage.  From  the 
time  I  was  five  years  old  I  had  been  used  to  attend  our  parish 
church  every  Sunday  morning,  to  join  in  the  Episcopal  service, 
and  to  listen  to  the  sermons  of  our  venerable  rector,  the  poet, 
George  Crabbe.  Most  vividly  I  recall  his  benevolent  face  and 
impressive  figure,  clad  in  his  black  silken  robe,  which  brought  his 
snow  white  hair  into  such  striking  contrast,  and  I  never  failed  to 
be  interested  from  the  time  he  ascended  the  pulpit  stairs  to  the 
close  of  his  dignified,  persuasive,  and  always  brief  discourse.  On 
each  Sunday  evening,  there  being  no  church  service,  I  as  regu- 
larly attended,  writh  my  parents  and  the  rest  of  the  family,  the 
preaching  of  our  noteworthy,  but  somewrhat  unlettered,  Baptist 
minister,  who,  with  stentorian  .lung  power  and  Bible-thumping 
earnestness,  preached  the  doctrines  of  election,  foreordination  and 
free-grace,  with  a  dogmatic  impressiveness  that  permitted  no 
questioning  the  truth  and  authority  of  his  teachings.  With  such 
standards  in  ni)'  mind,  I  was  much  struck  with  the  inadequacy 
of  my  brother's  pulpit  efforts.  He  was  neither  persuasive  nor 


THE  UNSOPHISTICATED.  109 

dogmatic,  only  argumentative  and  earnest,  in  a  schoolmaster  sort 
of  fashion.  My  brother's  preaching  was  unlike  anything  I  was 
accustomed  to  hear.  It  wholly  failed  to  satisfy  my  ideal ;  it  was 
not  Preaching,  but  simply  talking  and  arguing  from  a  pulpit.  He 
did  little  to  comfort  the  good  or  terrify  the  bad,  and  the  ungodly 
were  but  mildly  cautioned;  and  I  summed  up  the  whole  matter 
to  my  childish  satisfaction  by  thinking,  that  he  was  altogether 
too  young  to  occupy  a  pulpit,  and  that,  however  efficient  he 
might  be  as  a  schoolmaster,  he  was  a  failure  as  a  preacher. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  Phonography,  in  1840,  under 
the  stimulus  and  novelty  of  the  Penny  Postal  system,  then  first 
established  in  Great  Britain,  Isaac  Pitman's  correspondence 
greatly  increased.  His  promptitude  and  unfailing  courtesy  in 
answering  letters,  correcting  phonographic  exercises,  and  dis- 
cussing points  suggested  for  the  further  development  of  the 
system,  naturally  made  him  a  host  of  friends  and  admirers  in 
all  parts  of  the  land,  some  of  whom  occasionally  found  their 
way  to  Bath  to  see  him  and  pay  their  respects.  Highly  as 
my  brother  appreciated  the  enthusiasm  which  the  study  of  his 
invention  not  unfrequently  aroused,  so  long  as  it  was  expressed 
in  phonographic  characters,  its  oral  repetition  he  regarded  as 
a  waste  of  time;  and,  from  his  standpoint,  this  was  a  sin,  and 
no  more  to  be  tolerated  than  any  other  hideous  offense,  such 
as  smoking,  extravagance,  gambling  in  stocks,  or  gluttony !  It 
was  pleasant  to  note  the  unfeigned,  brotherly  cordiality  with 
which  a  visitor  would  be  received,  but  after  the  friendly  greeting, 
when  it  was  found  that  he  had  nothing  special  to  communicate 
or  discuss,  it  was  amusing  to  note  the  unsophisticated  friendliness 
with  which  the  visitor,  who  expected  to  spend  an  hour,  would 
seem  well  pleased  and  perfectly  satisfied  to  take  his  leave  after 
an  interview  of  a  minute  or  two.  Visitors  were  always  received 
in  his  office,  which  was  in  no  sense  a  private  one,  for  within 
a  few  yards  were  compositors  at  their  cases  and  wood  engravers, 
folders,  and  stitchers  at  work.  Isaac  usually  stood  at  his  desk, 
and  after  a  cordial  shake  of  the  hand  and  a  never-to-be-forgotten 
smile,  he  would  talk  with  his  visitor,  pen  in  hand,  a  reminder, 
though  not  so  intended,  that  an  interrupted  duty  was  waiting 
to  be  fulfilled.  His  lady  visitors  were  not  so  readily  disposed 
of,  and,  if  at  the  expiration  of  about  a  minute  and  a  half  they 
showed  no  sign  of  leaving,  he  would,  in  the  pleasantest  manner, 


no          S/A'  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

set  them  to  work !  He  would  lead  them  to  see  that  he  was 
busy  with  his  correspondence,  proof  reading,  lithographic-transfer 
writing,  or  some  other  duty,  as  the  case  might  be,  and  that  they 
could  help  him  in  his  work  if  they  liked  to  do  so,  and  of  course 
they  did.  He  would  then  give  each  a  square  of  postage  stamps, 
or  a  sheet  of  lozenge-shaped  phonographic  wafers,  such  as  were 
then  used  for  sealing  letters  before  the  advent  of  gummed 
envelopes,  and,  handing  them  scissors,  they  would  be  led  to 
believe  that  by  cutting  them  up  for  use,  they  would  be  doing 
something  to  aid  in  the  spread  of  their  beloved  phonographic 
cause.  Isaac  would  then  seem  to  be  relieved  from  all  sense  of 
intrusion,  and  would  proceed  with  his  work  with  his  accustomed 
serenity,  as  if  no  interruption  had  occurred.  When  the  sheet  was 
cut  the  visitors  would  probably  take  their  leave.  A  friendly  smile 
and  a  farewell  shake  of  the  hand,  on  the  part  of  my  brother, 
would  send  them  away  with  the  grateful  satisfaction  those  are 
said  to  experience  who  receive  the  papal  benediction.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  those  were  the  days  when  a  sheet  of  postage 
stamps  had  to  be  carefully  separated  with  a  pair  of  scissors,  and 
before  the  discovery  of  the  method  of  perforating  the  sheet  of 
stamps  with  intersecting  lines  of  small  holes  to  facilitate  their 
division, — the  little  thought  that  brought  the  inventor  a  large 
fortune.  Few  men  could  act  as  Isaac  did  without  seeming  to  be 
discourteous  and  rude.  But  he  inherited  father's  deferential 
courtesy  towards  women;  wholly  unconventional,  but  entirely 
frank,  the  promptings  of  an  honest  and  loving  heart,  of  which 
conduct  is  the  outward  and  visible  manifestation. 

Isaac  Pitman's  unsophisticated  performance  of  duty  is  told 
by  one  who  had  been  a  pupil  in  his  school,  at  Barton-on-Humber, 
in  1835.  He  recalls  that  when  he  attended  school,  his  master 
accompanied  the  marching  of  the  boys  through  the  little  town  by 
playing  on  the  flute.  The  Barton  school  was  conducted  on  the 
Bell  and  Lancaster  system,  in  which  my  brother  bad  been  trained 
at  the  London  College.  Being  semi-military  in  its  methods,  part  of 
its  discipline  was  for  the  boys  to  leave  school,  after  each  session, 
in  marching  order,  section  after  section,  breaking  ranks  from  the 
rear  only  when  the  boys  arrived  at  a  point  nearest  their  homes. 
Isaac  had  been  from  his  early  days  a  successful  performer  on 
the  flute,  and  for  years  before  leaving  home  he  and  his  elder 
brother,  Jacob,  were  accustomed  to  lead  the  singing  in  the  Sun- 


THE  UNSOPHISTICATED.  in 

day  school  with  the  strains  of  their  flutes.  To  appreciate  the 
Barton  incident  at  its  worth,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  was 
the  period  of  high  tension  in  my  brother's  religious  experience. 
His  serious  and  studious  life,  his  fastings,  self-denial,  and  strict 
religious  discipline  caused  him  to  be  ranked  with  his  high  exem- 
plar, John  Wesley.  His  marching  in  the  ranks  with  his  brigade 
of  eighty  boys,  making  them  keep  step  to  the  strains  of  his  flute, 
only  shows  that  he  aimed  to  perform  a  necessary  duty  in  what  he 
conceived  to  be  the  best  way,  and  the  thought  that  marching 
with  the  boys  through  the  streets  with  his  flute  might  excite 
ridicule  probably  never  entered  his  mind,  and  if  it  did,  it  had  no 
effect  whatever  in  deterring  him  from  using  his  instrument,  if, 
by  so  doing,  he  could  more  efficiently  drill  his  boys.  It  interests 
me  to  think  that  about  the  only  tune  I  can  recall  that  Isaac 
would  be  likely  to  play,  which  would  satisfy  his  conscience,  and 
be  the  right  tempo  for  a  marching  tune,  would  be  Handel's  Har- 
monious Blacksmith,  and  the  strains  of  this  distinctly  marked 
measure  would  have  made  marching  an  exhilarating  discipline 
for  the  youngsters. 

Very  unsophisticated  was  it  of  my  good  brother  to  blurt  out 
during  service  in  an  Episcopal  Church  his  deep-rooted  objection 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  Orthodox  Trinity.  It  was  at  Wotton-Under- 
Edge,  after  he  had  been  expelled  from  the  Methodist  Church  for 
his  rejection  of  this  tenet,  and  his  acceptance  of  the  teachings  of 
Swedenborg.  He  had  received  a  friendly  call  from  the  rector  of 
the  parish  church,  who  invited  him  to  attend  the  Episcopal  ser- 
vice. I  think  it  must  have  been  the  first  Sunday  of  our  attend- 
ance, and  I  remember  that  Isaac,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  Henry, 
and  myself,  occupied  the  large  and  fine  cloth-lined  pew.  of  the 
rector's  family,  immediately  below  the  pulpit.  The  congregation, 
all  standing,  were  responding  to  the  L,itany,  and  when  the 
preacher  came  to,  "O  holy,  blessed,  and  glorious  Trinity,  three 
persons  and  one  God,"  Isaac  said  aloud,  without  raising  his  eyes 
from  the  prayer  book,  "Where  is  the  scriptural  evidence?"  His 
words  were  sufficiently  loud  to  be  heard  by  the  rector,  and  by  all 
who  were  within  a  radius  of  fifteen  to  twenty  feet.  The  rector 
took  no  notice  of  the  interruption,  but  I  remember  blushing  till  I 
felt  half  suffocated,  as,  raising  my  eyes,  I  met  the  questioning 
glances  of  all  the  nicely-dressed  people  in  the  pews  about  us.  A 
few  days  afterwards  the  rector  made  us  a  call.  I  happened  to  be 


ii2  SSX  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

present,  and  was  much  relieved  in  mind  at  the  easy  and  polite 
way  in  which  he  minimized  my  brother's  unchurchly  conduct, 
and  at  the  same  time  lessened  the  formidable  objections  which 
Isaac  seemed  to  have  encountered  in  the  Episcopal  Doctrine  as 
set  forth  in  the  church  Litany.  The  rector's  visit,  I  remember, 
impressed  me  because  I  thought  that  if  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity was  not  so  very  necessary  to  accept,  then,  probably,  "the  crafts 
and  assaults  of  the  devil,  God's  wrath,  and  everlasting  damnation," 
as  set  forth  in  the  prayer  book,  and  which  I  had  recited  hundreds 
of  times,  might  not  be  the  tremendous  verities  I  had  been  taught 
to  believe,  and  possibly  these  terrors  might  be  explained  away  in 
like  manner,  and  in  future,  as  the  preacher  recited  the  dread- 
ful possibilities,  I  might  with  hopeful  confidence  respond,  "Good 
Lord,  deliver  us !  " 

While  I  was  attending  Isaac's  school  at  Wotton-Under-Edge, 
and  living  in  his  family,  his  unsophisticated  nature  led  to  an 
indiscretion  oddly  contrasting  with  the  even  tenor  of  his  life  and 
conduct.  One  of  the  largest  cloth  manufacturers  in  that  part  of 
the  country  unexpectedly  failed,  and  everything  he  possessed  was 
ordered  to  be  sold.  His  residence,  about  five  miles  from  Wotton- 
Under-Edge,  was  a  place  of  note.  The  house  was  situated  in  a 
beautiful  park,  and  the  whole  establishment  was  on  a  scale  of 
splendor  which  seemed,  to  my  young  imagination,  more  befitting 
a  prince  than  a  cloth  manufacturer.  His  horses  and  carriages 
were  fine  and  numerous,  and  his  wine  cellar  was  so  well  stocked, 
that  an  entire  day  was  devoted  to  its  sale.  Isaac  never  partook 
of  wine,  except  in  his  pudding  sauce,  and  of  its  presence  there  he 
was  uninformed.  Mrs.  Isaac  Pitman  always  kept  a  small  stock 
of  wine  in  the  house  for  visitors,  and  for  the  itinerant  Meth- 
odist ministers  who,  once  a  month,  made  their  Sunday  stay  at  our 
house  while  fulfilling  their  Sabbath  duty.  At  his  wife's  request, 
Isaac  attended  the  sale  on  the  day  the  wines  were  sold,  and  I 
accompanied  him.  The  sale  took  place  in  the  stately  dining- 
room,  and  would-be  purchasers  were  seated  on  each  side  of  the 
long,  broad  table  that  extended  the  length  of  the  room.  As  each 
new  variety  of  wine  was  offered  for  sale,  and  while  its  pedigree 
was  told  and  its  qualities  extolled  by  the  auctioneer,  sample  bot- 
tles were  uncorked  by  attendants  and  passed  down  the  table,  and 
all  who  were  disposed  poured  a  little  into  their  wine  glasses  to 
enable  them  to  judge  of  its  worth,  and  to  guide  them  in  their 


THE  UNSOPHISTICATED.  113 

bids.  Plates  piled  with  small  cubes  of  old  Cheshire  cheese  were 
plentifully  supplied  at  regular  distances  down  the  table.  Occa- 
sionally my  brother  would  pour  out  a  small  quantity  of  some 
sweet  variety  of  wine  for  my  delectation.  According  to  instruc- 
tion, Isaac  made  purchase  of  only  a  case  or  two  of  sherry,  and  I 
imagine  he  would  be  guided  by  what  the  auctioneer  said  as  to 
the  age  and  quality  of  the  wine,  rather  than  by  the  judgment  he 
himself  would  form  from  the  sparing  sips  he  took  of  the  varieties 
offered  for  sale.  It  was  on  a  pleasant  Saturday  afternoon  that  we 
left  the  grounds  of  that  beautiful  home,  and  no  sooner  had  we 
reached  the  entrance  gates  than  I  was  treated  with  a  surprise. 
With  an  exclamation,  which  I  can  only  recall  as  something  like 
"Well,  here  we  are !  "  or,  "Here  we  go !  "  my  usually  serious 
brother,  to  my  amusement  and  surprise,  started  off  on  a  run  with 
such  frolicsome  vigor  that  it  taxed  my  utmost  •  ability  to  keep 
pace  with  him.  He  kept  up  the  race  for  more  than  half  a  mile, 
when  he  relapsed  into  a  sober  walk.  Whether  we  afterwards 
went  at  our  usual  pace,  or  whether  he  lagged,  whether  we 
talked — for  Isaac  was  accustomed  to  make  walking  the  opportu- 
nity for  pleasant  and  instructive  conversation — or  whether  we 
were  silent,  I  do  not  now  remember;  but  well  I  recall  that, 
on  reaching  home,  Isaac  retired  to  his  room,  and  did  not  appear 
at  the  tea  table,  nor  till  after  breakfast  next  morning.  Mrs.  Pit- 
man reported  that  he  had  been  sick. 

The  illness  lasted  but  a  few  hours,  and  was  the  only  lapse 
from  his  usual  normal  health  and  vigor  I  ever  knew  of.  It  was 
an  incident  that  had  no  parallel  in  a  lifetime,  and.,  as  well  as 
I  remember,  it  was  never  afterwards  referred  to.  My  unsophisti- 
cated brother  had  gained  a  little  experience  of  the  effect  of 
mixed  wines,  even  though  partaken  of  but  sparingly,  and  not 
for  indulgence,  but  only  in  the  simple  line  of  duty.  The 
promptitude  and  certainty  of  the  penalty  was  a  surprise,  but, 
at  this  distance  of  time,  has  become  only  an  amusing  reminis- 
cence. 

Isaac  Pitman  never  wore  any  personal  adornments.  Ex- 
treme Methodistic  simplicity  of  attire  was  his  unvarying  rule. 
Black  broadcloth,  a  swallow-tail  coat,  with  a  white  cambric  neck- 
cloth, was  his  habit  from  youth  to  age.  When  the  Queen  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  honor  of  knighthood,  he  was,  probably,  the 
only  one  of  the  small  group  who,  on  that  occasion,  knelt  before 


.114  SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

her  majesty,  to  whom  gold  sleeve  buttons,  diamond  studs,  and 
patent-leather  boots  did  not,  though  unconsciously,  afford  a  cer- 
tain moral  support,  trifles  without  which  each  would  have  felt 
himself  unequal  to  the  knightl}'  ordeal !  One  of  the  distinguished 
group  knighted  on  that  occasion  is  reported  to  have  said  after- 
wards that  it  was  the  most  trying  and  uncomfortable  few  minutes 
he  had  ever  spent  in  his  life.  We  can  readily  believe  that  Isaac 
Pitman  was  the  only  one  to  whom  it  was  a  season  of  anything 
approaching  tranquillity.  To  each  of  the  others  knighthood  was 
a  distinguished  and  much  coveted  honor,  and,  no  doubt,  regarded 
wholly  as  a  personal  affair,  a  reward  for  ability  or  achievement ; 
and  recognition  by  so  august  a  personage  as  the  Queen  of 
England,  accompanied  by  so  imposing  a  ceremony  as  laying  the 
Sword  of  State  on  the  shoulder  of  the  average  Englishman,  was 
enough  to  crush  out  of  him  the  last  remaining  spark  of  inde- 
pendent manhood.  To  my  unsophisticated  brother  the  ceremony 
must  have  been  an  agreeable  comedy.  Of  course  it  was  interest- 
ing and  highly  gratifying  that  the  supreme  personage  of  the 
realm  should  at  length  recognize  the  worth  and  utility  of  the 
child  of  his  brain,  whose  development  had  caused  him  more  than 
half  a  century  of  unremitting  thought  and  labor,  but  the  mere 
presence  of  the  Queen  would  not  be  awe  inspiring;  the  cere- 
mony, as  such,  would  not  be  disconcerting,  and,  of  itself,  would 
be  unimportant.  It  was  the  recognition  of  his  lifelong  cherished 
idea  that  was  important,  and  for  this  he  was  glad  and  grateful. 
It  was  an  event  that  ought  to  happen,  might  happen,  or  might 
not;  but,  as  it  did,  it  was  a  cause  for  joy,  and  there  was  nothing 
in  the  event,  beyond,  perhaps,  being  a  little  too  formally  con- 
ducted, that  was  felt  to  be  anything  more  than  a  pleasant  thanks- 
giving ceremony. 

At  the  royal  luncheon,  which  followed,  Isaac  was  the  only 
vegetarian,  and  his  abstemiousness  is  said  to  have  given  rise  to 
the  only  little  pleasantry  attending  the  stately  function.  A  well- 
bred  vegetarian  can  always  find  sufficient  to  satisfy  his  needs  at 
any  well-spread  board,  without  partaking  of  fish,  flesh,  or  fowl ; 
but  we  can  easily  imagine  our  unsophisticated  vegetarian,  after 
taking  a  survey  of  the  ornamental  and  gustatory  amplitude  of  the 
royal  spread,  quietly  addressing  the  gorgeously  attired  lackey 
behind  his  chair  with  the  request:  "Will  you  oblige  me  with 
a  buttered  sandwich,  with  nothing  in  it  ?"  And  then,  of  the 


THE  UNSOPHISTICATED.  115 

consternation  of  that  important  personage,  when  he  discovered 
that  the  royal  larder  did  not  contain  it! 

Those  on  whom  the  honor  of  knighthood  was  conferred  were 
not  required  to  appear  before  her  majesty  in  the  usual  Court 
dress.  At  all  other  Court  ceremonials  the  rule  was  enforced.  A 
special  exception,  it  may  be  remembered,  was  made  in  the  case  of 
Quaker  John  Bright,  when  he  accepted  a  position  in  Gladstone's 
Cabinet.  Had  my  puritanical  brother  been  required  to  appear 
before  the  Queen  in  knee  breeches,  with  a  sword  at  his  side,  it  is 
safe  to  say  there  would  have  been  no  Sir  Isaac  Pitman. 


SOMEWHAT  curious  was  the  coincidence  that  just  at  the 
time  when  my  brother  first  became  absorbed  in  his  life's 
work,  when,  seemingly,  every  thought  and  affection  was 
devoted  to  the  new-born  child  of  his  brain,  that  then  should  have 
commenced  the  one  great  and  only  love  romance  of  his  life. 
Though  he  was  twice  married,  he  had  but  one  true  love,  and  that 
escaped  him.  Isaac's  adventure  was  an  illustration  of  the  rule 
that  a  true-hearted,  conscientious  man,  however  much  he  may 
respect  conventional  law  and  usage,  will,  in  the  supreme  events 
of  his  life,  be  a  law  unto  himself.  My  brother's  married  life  was 
uncongenial,  physically,  intellectually  and  spiritually.  He  would 
have  been  less  than  a  man,  though,  absorbed  as  he  was  in  his 
special  work,  had  his  heart  not  yearned,  perhaps  unconsciously, 
for  the  solace,  trust,  and  comradeship  which  only  loving  sympathy 
can  bring.  But  his  singularly  pre-occupied  life  naturally  suggests 
the  questions  whether  a  literary,  artistic,  or  scientific  man,  whose 
all-absorbing  thought,  time  and  energies  are  devoted  to  some 
special  life's  work,  should  ever  marry.  It  may  be  questioned 
whether  men  of  the  type  and  temperament  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
John  Wesley,  John  Ruskin  or  Isaac  Pitman  have  any  right  to 
marry,  or  to  ask  a  true  woman  to  enter  upon  so  one-sided  and 
unfair  a  partnership  as  a  life-long  marriage.  And,  would  a  man 
whose  intellectual  and  emotional  nature  is  pre-occupied  with 
some  overmastering  enterprise  or  vocation,  and  whose  life  is 
filled  with  resulting  activities  and  duties,  be  likely  to  find  a  mate 
who  could  sympathize  with  him,  and  who  would  willingly,  for 
love's  sake  alone,  participate  in  a  life  partnership  with  a  pre- 
occupied and  devoted  specialist?  As  readily  could  we  imagine 
Joan  of  Arc  with  a  satisfactory  husband. 

117 


iiH          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Some  notable  examples  may  be  recalled  of  the  worthiest  of 
men,  Michael  Angelo,  Swedenborg,  Gibbon,  Washington  Irving, 
Buckle,  Herbert  Spencer,  Phillips  Brooks,  Whittier,  Thoreau, 
and  others,  who  never  married,  for  each  seemed  to  realize  that 
marriage,  in  his  case,  was  undesirable  because  it  would  be  unjust; 
his  life's  work  would  not  permit  of  that  personal  devotion  which 
the  true  wife  expects  and  has  the  right  to  demand.  John  Ruskin 
realized  this  shortly  after  his  marriage,  and  with  rare,  generous 
nobility,  and  in  accord  with  his  high  ideal  of  duty,  gave  up  the 
wife  he  had  espoused  to  his  friend  Millais,  who  proved  to  be,  as 
Ruskin  believed,  her  true  mate.  The  pure,  earnest  worker  is 
possibly  the  one  who  most  needs  and  craves  the  rest,  peace,  and 
delight  of  true  comradeship  and  love ;  but  too  often  he  is  unable, 
rather  than  unwilling,  to  pay  the  price  in  time  and  reciprocal 
devotion. 

Precisely  the  same  plea  might  be  advanced  with  respect  to 
women,  for  the  day  is  past  when  men  alone  are  pioneers  in  the 
march  of  progress.  We  are  now  face  to  face  with  a  new,  or,  at 
least,  an  emphasized  aspect  of  social  life  and  its  problems.  Never 
before,  probably,  were  the  social,  intellectual,  and  ethical  inequal- 
ities of  the  civilized  portion  of  the  world  as  great  as  they  are 
now,  and  the  more  keen-sighted  and  tender-hearted  men  and 
women  are,  the  more  readily  will  their  chivalrous  nature  be 
aroused  to  do  battle  for  the  weaker  side,  and  to  aid  with  all  their 
might  in  lessening  the  disparities  and  inequalities  that  divide  the 
high  and  the  low,  the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the  extravagant 
rich  and  the  destitute  poor,  the  wisely  temperate  and  the  debased 
intemperate,  the  Christ -like  man  and  the  Cain-like  culprit.  These 
anomalies  in  our  civilization  make  philanthropists  and  specialists, 
the  most  worthy  of  living  souls,  and  the  most  to  be  respected 
and  revered  of  all  the  people  on  earth ;  but,  from  much  experi- 
ence, we  prefer  to  admire  them  from  a  distance.  Now  to  our 
story,  which,  had  it  prospered,  might  have  controverted  this  fine- 
spun theory. 

There  lived  a  family  at  Wotton-Under-Edge  with  whom  we 
were  on  terms  of  friendly  intimacy.  The  younger  portion  of  the 
family  consisted  of  three  sisters,  who  were  interesting  and  intelli- 
gent. They  conducted  a  young  ladies'  school.  The  eldest  was  my 
drawing  teacher,  and  though  more  than  three  score  years  have 
passed  since  then,  I  feel  a  glow  of  gratitude  as  I  recall  the  gentle 


MARRIAGE  VS.  A  MISSION.  119 

patience  with  which  she  encouraged  me  to  do  painstaking  work. 
The  youngest,  M — ,  came  to  live  in  our  family  as  a  companion  to 
Mrs.  Isaac  Pitman.  She  was  then  about  seventeen;  a  girl  of  a 
very  lovable  type ;  intelligent,  emotional,  but  unassertive ;  of 
pleasing  countenance  rather  than  beautiful,  and  with  a  smile  that 
lighted  her  face  into  perfect  loveliness.  She  had  been  taught  to 
pronounce  correctly,  and  her  voice  being  low  and  sweet,  and  her 
intonations  smooth  and  caressing,  her  speech  was  very  winning, 
for,  in  addition  to  its  emotional  quality,  it  had  the  charm  of  refine- 
ment and  precision.  Isaac  seemed  to  pay  no  more  attention  to 
her  than  to  us  boys.  M —  lived  in  the  family  for  about  a  year. 
The  three  sisters  then  moved  to  a  northern  town,  where  they 
established  a  larger  ladies'  seminary.  I  visited  them  some  years 
after,  and  I  found  their  home  a  charming  example  of  quiet  ele- 
gance and  refinement.  I  returned  home  to  Bradford  and  remained 
nearly  two  years,  when  Henry  and  I  went  to  Bath  to  serve  an 
apprenticeship  under  Mr.  L,ewis,  the  city  architect,  to  study  car- 
pentry, building,  and  architecture,  with  the  intention  of  joining 
our  brother  Jacob,  who  was  then  a  builder  and  architect  in  Aus- 
tralia. Isaac  had  now  removed  to  Bath,  and  had  established  a 
private  school  there,  and  Henry  and  I  again  became  members  of 
his  family.  I  soon  found  that  Isaac  kept  up  a  correspondence 
with  M — ,  and  occasionaly  he  would  say,  with  an  eye-lighted 
smile,  "  Here  is  a  letter  from  M — ,"  handing  it  to  me,  or  reading 
an  extract  from  it.  That  the  letters  were  something  more  than 
friendly,  is  shown  by  the  domestic  upheaval  which  soon  occurred. 
A  package  of  M — 's  letters  in  some  way  came  into  the  possession 
of  Isaac's  wife,  and  revealed  the  fact  that  there  had  been  a  regu- 
lar exchange  of  heart  secrets  between  them.  Mrs.  Pitman  was 
unable  to  read  Phonography,  and  she  had  to  avail  herself  of  the 
knowledge  of  one  of  Isaac's  schoolboys  to  decipher  and  make 
extracts  from  the  letters.  Armed  with  these  she  proceeded  with 
a  determination  born  of  a  supposed  wrong  to  see  the  two  minis- 
ters of  our  church,  Mr.  J.  B.  Keene,  who  was  the  able  editor  and 
proprietor  of  the  Bath  Journal,  the  leading  newspaper  of  the  city, 
and  his  associate  minister,  Dr.  Barnes.  The  result  was  that  the 
matter  was  laid  before  the  trustees  of  the  church  at  two  separate 
meetings,  Isaac  and  his  wife  being  present.  I  know  nothing  of 
the  proceedings  beyond  what  was  afterwards  quietly  told,  that 
the  judges  of  Isaac's  conduct  were  so  firmly  persuaded  of  the 


120          SIX  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

purity  of  his  motives  and  sentiments,  the  innocence  of  his  impru- 
dence, and  the  virtue  of  the  charged  immorality,  that  he  was 
cautioned  rather  than  censured,  and  with  that  the  matter  ended. 
The  only  effect  at  home  was  that  we  were  for  a  time  all  some- 
what reserved  at  our  meals,  but  soon  life  seemed  to  glide  on  in 
its  customary  routine  of  smoothness  and  regularity. 

The  heart-friendship  between  Isaac  and  M — did  not  cease 
with  this  eruption.  After  eighteen  months  in  Isaac's  family,  I 
left  Bath  to  assist  my  brother  Joseph,  who  had  just  started  in  the 
north  of  England,  in  the  promulgation  of  Phonography  by  lec- 
turing and  teaching.  Soon  after  I  left  Bath  I  was  made  one  of  a 
circle  of  four  who  contributed  to  a  phonographic  ever-circulator, 
and  who  were  the  only  confidents  in  Isaac's  love  secret.  In  addi- 
tion to  Isaac,  M — ,  and  myself,  there  was  a  friend  of  M — 's,  a  lady 
of  great  intelligence,  sweetness,  and  worth.  I  need  say  nothing 
more  of  her  than  that  she  was  the  loving  wife  of  a  professional 
man,  and  that  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  when  he  was  on  his  1846 
lecturing  tour  in  England,  was  a  guest  at  their  beautiful  home 
for  the  two  or  three  days  that  he  remained  in  their  city.  Isaac's 
life  at  this  time  was  as  full  of  active,  never-ending  work  as  ever; 
but  this  ever-circulator  seemed  his  only  joy,  all  the  rest  of  his 
life  was  duty,  necessary  and  pleasant,  but  still  duty,  and  lacking 
the  emotional  ecstasy  which  the  thought  of  M —  inspired. 

It  was  when  I  was  lecturing  and  teaching  in  the  old  city  of 
York  (1848)  that  an  arrangement  was  made  for  Isaac  and  his  love 
to  meet  at  my  rooms,  when  they  would  see  each  other  for  the 
first  time  for  three  or  four  years.  Isaac  might  have  been  on  a 
lecturing  tour,  of  that  I  am  not  certain,  but  M —  had  to  travel  at 
least  fifty  miles  to  reach  York.  The  meeting  was  the  mutual 
clasping  of  hearts,  compared,  on  my  brother's  part,  to  what  a  lov- 
ing mother  might  feel  for  her  only  child  from  whom  she  had  been 
separated  for  years.  But  it  was  something  more ;  it  was  the  hun- 
gry soul  feasting,  for  the  time,  on  the  sweet  consolation  of  sym- 
pathetic companionship,  of  which,  in  his  ordinary  life,  he  was 
denied.  If  ever  there  was  an  ardent,  spiritual  love  from  which 
earthly  passion  was  eliminated,  I  believe  this  was  one.  The 
meeting  was  only  for  a  few  hours,  when  they  took  the  train  for 
their  respective  homes.  After  I  was  married,  my  wife  knew  of 
Isaac's  affection  for  M — ,  and  rejoiced  in  the  knowledge  of  it.  I 
left  England  for  this  country  late  in  1852,  and  Mrs.  Pitman  died 


MARRIAGE   I'S.  A  MISSION.  121 

in  1854.  In  1857  Isaac  was  again  married,  but  not  to  M — .  My 
amazement  was  great.  There  seemed  to  be  no  satisfactory  expla- 
nation beyond  the  possible  interference  of  the  two  older  sisters. 
Up  to  that  time  Isaac's  income  from  Phonography  was  scarcely 
enough  to  pay  his  living  expenses ;  in  other  words,  all  that  Pho- 
nography was  earning,  and  much  borrowed  money,  Isaac  was 
spending  on  his  costly  phonotypic  experiments.  Love  for  the 
younger  sister,  dread  of  separation,  fear,  nay,  a  seeming  certainty 
that  her  life  would  be  a  struggle  with  poverty,  were  deemed  suffi- 
cient reasons  for  insisting  on  delay,  and  certain  persuasive  tactics 
at  Bath,  which  I  only  knew  of  afterwards,  proved  effective  in 
breaking  off  as  pure  and  sacred  a  love  as  I  have  ever  known, 
leaving  my  unwary  brother  to  venture  on  a  second  marriage, 
which,  unhappily,  proved  a  reminder  of  the  Paradise  he  had 
sought  and  lost. 


^SffSi^  aJV^jgyaSfi 


A 5  early  as  1845  or  '46  the  returns  from  the  sales  of  Phono- 
graphic books  must  have  yielded  my  brother  a  sufficient 
revenue  for  a  frugal  living,  and  for  the  gradual  increase 
and  betterment  of  the  means  for  carrying  on  his  publishing  busi- 
ness. But  the  income  derived  from  his  books  was  all  absorbed 
by  his  Phonotypic  experiments ;  and  how  those  varied,  and  how 
constant  were  the  changes  and  fancied  improvements  in  the 
forms  of  the  new  letters,  is  abundantly  shown  in  his  weekly  Pho- 
netic Journal,  from  1844  to  '56.  Few  persons  have  other  than  a 
faint  idea  of  the  thought,  labor,  and  cost  of  adding  new  letters  to 
the  alphabet,  and  Isaac  Pitman's  scheme  required  at  least  seven- 
teen to  complete  an  alphabet  of  forty  letters  necessary  for  the 
correct  representation  of  English.  Each  letter  required  steel 
punches  to  be  cut,  and  matrices  to  be  made  for  lower-case,  capi- 
tal, and  small  caps,  as  well  as  capitals  and  lower-case  forms  for 
Italic  letters ;  script,  as  well  as  Roman  forms,  would,  of  course,  be 
ultimately  required  for  the  added  letters,  and  all  these  would  be 
necessary  to  complete  one  font,  or  size  of  type.  I  believe  my 
brother's  printing  office  contained,  in  1855,  five  fonts  of  phonetic 
types  of  different  sizes,  and  at  the  time  of  his  removal  from 
Albion  Place  (the  office  I  knew  before  leaving  England)  to  more 
commodious  quarters  in  Parsonage  Lane,  in  1855,  he  speaks  of 
having  "  to  pack  up,  haul,  unpack,  and  rearrange  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  tons  of  type,  printing  apparatus,  books,  and  office  furni- 

123 


124  SS#  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

ture."  To  pay  for  his  costly  experiments,  more  abundant  means 
were  needed  than  were  furnished  by  his  own  income,  so  he  estab- 
lished the  Phonetic  Fund,  to  which  all  interested  in  the  attempt 
to  secure  a  rational  orthography  were  invited  to  contribute. 
This  fund,  in  December,  1852,  amounted  to  nearly  five  thousand 
dollars.  He  also  borrowed  from  confiding  friends  sums  varying 
from  ^ico  to  ^200,  till,  in  1858,  he  was  over  ^"2,000  in  debt.  Sir 
Walter  C.  Trevelyan,  who  was  a  liberal  and  devoted  friend  for 
twenty  years,  was  one  who  never  consented  to  receive  interest  on 
his  loans.  Neither  he  nor  anyone  else  ever  asked  for  any  secur- 
ity for  their  loans  beyond  my  brother's  word. 

In  1859  some  of  the  more  earnest  friends  of  the  Phonetic 
Reform,  who  knew  of  Isaac's  self-sacrifices  in  carrying  on  his 
costly  typic  experiments,  proposed  that  a  public  subscription 
should  be  raised  to  aid  him  in  his  efforts  to  perfect  the  alphabet. 
Rev.  Cyril  H.  E.  Wyche,  of  London,  who  took  the  lead  in  the 
matter,  wrote  to  Isaac  asking  if  a  money  testimonial  would  be 
agreeable  to  him,  or  in  what  form  their  appreciation  of  his  labors 
would  be  most  acceptable.  My  brother  regarded  Mr.  Wyche's 
announcement  of  the  generous  intent  of  the  phonographers  of 
that  day  as  "one  of  those  rarely  occurring  events  in  life  in  which 
we  recognize  the  Angel  of  the  Divine  Providence  as  soon  as  he  is 
at  our  side."  He  would,  he  said,  gratefully  accept  aid,  in  that  it 
would  help  towards  building  a  Phonetic  Institute — a  suitable 
home  for  Phonography  and  Phonotypy  —  and  afford  the  much 
needed  facilities  for  carrying  on  the  work  to  which  his  life  was 
devoted.  To  show  the  urgency  of  this  want  he  said :  "It  is  only 
necessary  that  I  should  refer  to  the  buildings  that  have  been  suc- 
cessively occupied  for  this  purpose.  From  1837  (the  date  of  the 
first  edition  of  Phonography)  to  January,  1846,  I  put  out  my 
printing.  I  then  set  up  a  press  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  my  own 
house,  5  Nelson  Place,  and  used  two  other  rooms  for  compositors 
and  a  bindery.  In  January,  1851,  to  obtain  more  room,  I  removed 
to  i  Albion  Place,  Upper  Bristol  Road  (  Mr.  Ellis's  printing  office 
from  1847  to  1849),  where  the  business  was  carried  on,  under 
many  inconveniences,  in  four  rooms.  In  March,  1855,  I  removed 
to  this  office  in  Parsonage  Lane,  where  I  have  sufficient  room  for 
my  present  business  (but  not  for  much  increase),  and  on  a  single 
floor,  but  I  can  say  nothing  else  in  favor  of  the  place.  It  is  sit- 
uated in  the  only  filthy  lane  I  have  seen  in  this  clean  and  beau- 


ALTRUISTIC  LABORS.  125 

tiful  city  of  crescents  and  squares;  and  the  pollutions  are  not 
physical  alone,  but  moral  also,  for  on  the  other  side  of  the  narrow 
lane,  two  or  three  steps  from  my  office  door,  the  'social  evil' 
festers.  The  dimensions  of  my  office  are  53  feet  by  28.  It  is  the 
top  floor  of  a  block  of  buildings  occupied  principally  by  cabinet- 
makers. The  rate  of  insurance  is  thus  so  high  that  I  have  not 
insured  my  stock  of  type  and  books.  The  ground  floor  has  a 
large  gateway  leading  to  a  pig  slaughterhouse  that  lies  at  the 
back;  there  is  another  pig  slaughterhouse  in  the  front  of  my 
office,  and  a  sheep  slaughterhouse,  that  does  a  great  deal  of  busi- 
ness, next  door.  Of  course,  noisome  smells  often  arise  from  these 
places,  and  sometimes  they  have  been  pungent  enough  to  drive 
everyone  out  of  the  office.  The  room  itself  would  be  more 
correctly  designated  a  barn  than  a  printing  office.  During  the 
first  two  years  of  my  tenancy,  one-half  of  the  room  was  not  even 
ceiled,  and  I  had  nothing  between  me  and  the  sky  but  an  old 
shattered  tile  roof  that  constantly  let  the  rain  in.  This  room  is 
an  addition  to  the  original  height  of  the  house,  and  the  walls  are 
only  six  inches  thick.  Placed  thus  within  thin  walls,  under  an 
immense  tile  roof,  we  are  exposed  in  summer  to  excessive  heat, 
and  in  winter  to  excessive  cold.  I  have  scarcely  been  free  from 
a  cold  since  I  entered  this  place.  Only  in  the  spring  and  autumn 
can  I  do  a  fair  amount  of  work  for  the  number  of  hours  I  spend 
here.  Often,  in  the  evening,  when  I  am  the  sole  occupant  of  the 
office,  a  company  of  rats  will  scamper  across  the  floor  to  amuse 
me.  There  is  not  another  place  in  Bath  to  which  I  can  remove, 
nor  have  I  been  able  to  find  one  elsewhere." 

It  was  thought  that  ,£1,000  would  be  raised,  but  no  great 
publicity  was  given  to  the  affair,  and  the  subscription  stopped  at 
^350,  which  was  presented  to  my  brother  at  a  meeting  held  in 
London,  in  June,  1862.  Accompanying  the  check  for  this  sum 
was  a  fine  marble  time  piece,  on  which  was  inscribed:  "Pre- 
sented, with  a  purse  of  ^350,  to  Isaac  Pitman,  the  inventor  of 
Phonography,  by  many  friends  of  the  Phonetic  System,  in  token 
of  their  high  appreciation  of  its  many  excellences,  and  of  his 
untiring  labors  in  its  extension. 

It  is  hard  to  realize  the  fact  that  tens  of  thousands  of  pages 
of  delicately-written  lithographed  Phonography,  the  faultless 
hand-printing  of  his  Weekly  Journal,  and  his  other  numerous 
publications,  and  the  countless  neatly  written  phonographic  let- 


126  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

ters,  came  from  this  barn-like  office,  with  its  wretched  surround- 
ings. In  1867,  after  an  occupancy  of  eighteen  years,  Isaac  Pit- 
man's lease  of  the  Parsonage  Lane  premises  expired.  The  spread 
of  Phonography,  the  general  interest  in  the  phonetic  experiments, 
and  the  increased  demand  for  Phonographic  and  Phonetically 
printed  books,  were  such  that  the  one  "big  barn-like  room"  was 
felt  to  be  ill-adapted  to  the  requirements  of  my  brother's  extended 
business.  In  his  desire  for  a  suitable  Phonetic  Institute,  which 
would  give  larger  and  healthier  quarters  for  himself  and  his 
eighteen  workmen,  he  appealed  for  help  to  the  English  Phonetic 
Society,  now  numbering  upwards  of  four  thousand  members. 
After  describing  the  wretched  environment  of  the  Parsonage 
Lane  quarters,  its  insufficient  accommodation,  its  leaky  roof,  its 
thin,  damp  walls,  and  consequent  damage  to  his  books,  as  well  as 
its  general  discomforts  to  his  workmen  and  himself,  he  said : 
"From  the  year  1837,  when  Phonography  was  invented,  to  the 
year  1843,  when  I  gave  up  my  private  day-school  in  order  to  live 
for  and  by  the  Writing  and  Spelling  Reform,  I  occupied  all  my 
spare  time  before  and  after  school  hours  in  extending  Phonog- 
raphy through  the  Post,  and  by  traveling  and  lecturing  during 
the  holidays.  In  this  period  I  gained  nothing  by  my  system  of 
Shorthand,  but  spent  all  the  proceeds  of  my  books  in  extending 
their  circulation.  From  1843  to  1861,  I  labored  at  the  cause  from 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  ten  at  night,  and  literally  never 
took  a  day's  holiday,  or  felt  that  I  wanted  one ;  and  I  worked  on 
till  1864  without  the  assistance  of  a  clerk  or  foreman.  During 
this  period  my  income  from  the  sale  of  phonetic  books,  after  pay- 
ing the  heavy  expenses  connected  with  the  perfecting  and  exten- 
sion of  Phonetic  Printing,  did  not  exceed  ^80  per  annum  for  the 
first  ten  years,  ^100  for  the  next  five  years,  and  ^150  for  the 
next  three  years.  During  the  first  of  these  periods  I  was  twice 
assessed  for  the  Income-Tax.  I  appealed,  and  proved  that  my 
income  was  under  ^100.  The  commissioners  appeared  surprised 
that  I  should  carry  on  an  extensive  business  for  the  benefit 
of  posterity.  From  1861  to  the  present  time  my  income  from 
Phonography  has  been  sufficient  for  the  expenses  of  my  increased 
family,  but  not  more.  If  phonographers  think  that  this  labor, 
extending  over  the  best  part  of  a  life,  has  been  productive  of 
pleasure  and  profit  to  them,  and  to  the  world  at  large,  they  have 
now  an  opportunit)'  of  placing  me  in  a  position  to  carry  on  the 


ALTRUISTIC  LABORS.  127 

work  of  the  Reading,  Writing,  and  Spelling  Reform  more  effec- 
tually. That  which  is  done  promptly  is  generally  done  well.  Let 
us  all  labor  in  the  eye  of  the  motto — 'The  Future  is  greater  than 
the  Past.'  "  He  headed  the  subscription  with  the  ^,350  presented 
to  him  in  1862.  Sir  Walter  C.  Trevelyan  gave  ^100,  and  other 
smaller  sums  soon  raised  the  fund  to  ^1000.  After  many  fruit- 
less attempts  to  obtain  suitable  premises,  or  a  site  on  which  to 
build,  he  was  fortunately  enabled,  at  an  extensive  sale  of  property 
belonging  to  Earl  Manvers,  to  purchase  a  substantial  stone  struc- 
ture of  five  stories,  including  basement,  almost  in  the  center  of 
the  city,  for  the  comparative  low  sum  of  ^600.  The  building 
was  sold  as  two  houses,  but  it  had  a  central  entrance,  a  spacious 
hall,  and  a  staircase  twelve  feet  wide,  and  was  originally  built 
and  occupied  as  one  house.  It  took  nearly  six  months  of  work, 
on  the  part  of  masons  and  carpenters,  to  transform  the  Kingston 
Buildings,  as  they  were  called,  into  a  Phonetic  Institute. 
Towards  the  close  of  '74  the  removal  from  the  high  room  of  Par- 
sonage Lane  had  commenced,  and  a  repetition  of  the  packing, 
hauling,  unpacking,  and  rearranging  of  1855  took  place,  and 
though  the  task  was  more  formidable  than  before,  it  was  gladly 
undertaken.  The  interruption  to  Isaac's  correspondence,  and 
the  temporary  delay  in  issuing  the  Phonetic  Journal,  resulted  in 
the  accumulation  of  piles  of  letters,  till  it  seemed  a  little  army  of 
clerks  would  be  required  to  bring  up  arrears.  But  the  indefati- 
gable worker,  single  handed,  was  equal  to  the  task;  and  soon 
things  went  on  smoothly  and  swimmingly  in  the  new  quarters. 
But  other  and  more  perplexing  difficulties  had  to  be  encountered. 
At  the  Parsonage  Lane  establishment  only  hand-presses  were  em- 
ployed. For  the  new  building  Isaac  Pitman  purchased  a 
"Blaten"  printing  machine,  which  would  print  six  hundred  sheets 
per  hour,  a  great  advance  upon  the  hand-press,  on  which  a 
man  and  a  strong  boy  could  print  not  more  than  five  hundred 
sheets  per  day.  To  drive  the  new  press,  he  placed  in  the 
basement  of  the  building  a  two-horse  vertical  tubular  engine ; 
but  it  soon  proved  insufficient,  and  was  replaced  by  a  four- 
horse  horizontal  engine.  Gratefully  as  my  brother  appreciated 
these  new  facilities,  he  soon  encountered  unlooked-for  troubles. 
We  quote  from  the  Phonetic  Journal  of  8th  May,  1875  : 

"The  friends  of  Phonetic  Spelling  who  see  this  journal  have 
sympathized  with  us  in  our  trials  for  the  past  six  months,  with 


128          SJK  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

respect  to  the  labor  we  have  undergone,  the  great  expense  we 
have  incurred,  and  the  annoyances  to  which  we  have  been  sub- 
jected in  our  attempt  to  introduce  into  the  Phonetic  Institute  a 
steam  engine  and  printing  machine.  These  troubles  have  arisen 
from  two  sources :  first,  the  difficulty  of  getting  our  machine  to 
wrork  at  all,  through  our  having  been  deceived  in  the  purchase  of 
an  engine  and  boiler  that  eventually  proved  not  worth  the  cost  of 
erection ;  and  secondly,  after  we  had  a  new  boiler  and  engine 
made,  the  machine  was  pronounced  a  'nuisance'  to  our  neigh- 
bors. We  removed  it  to  another  part  of  the  building,  to  pacify 
the  neighbor  on  one  side,  and  then  found  that  its  sound  could 
just  as  well  be  heard  by  the  neighbor  on  the  other  side,  who  is 
much  more  exacting  in  his  demands.  Nothing  less  than  a  pay- 
ment of  ,£150  cash,  and  the  engine  to  be  entirely  stopped  between 
the  hours  of  twelve  noon  and  i  P.  M.  each  day,  or  still  more 
severe  terms  in  our  taking  off  his  hands  the  lease  of  his  house, 
will  satisfy  him.  '  These  are  the.  only  terms  which  can  be  enter- 
tained,'says  his  solicitor.  Of  course  we  do  not  entertain  them, 
but  stopped  our  machine  immediately  on  receipt  of  his  solicitor's 
letter,  and  just  as  this  journal  is  going  to  press.  The  masons 
have  now  (ist  May)  been  working  two  months  in  laying  down 
the  new  boiler,  removing  the  machine,  and  making  the  necessary 
alterations  in  the  premises,  and  will  finish  their  wrork  in  another 
day;  and  the  engineers  were  employed  three  weeks  after  the 
engine  was  made;  and  just  as  the  work  is  finished  we  find  that 
all  the  labor  and  money  is  thrown  away — for  the  present.  \Ye 
shall  now  have  to  print  a  journal  of  eight  pages  at  a  hand-press 
as  formerly,  till  something  shall  turn  up,  either  here  or  in  some 
other  premises,  so  that  we  can  employ  steam  power,  and  it  will 
not  be  voted  a  legal  nuisance." 


THE  year  1887  completed  the  fiftieth  year  of  the  life  of 
Phonography.  The  inventor  still  lived,  and  among  the 
tens  of  thousands  who  had  been  benefited  by  the  use 
of  his  system,  there  were  many  who  thought  it  would  be 
most  fitting  to  celebrate  the  jubilee  of  an  art  whose  utility 
was  recognized  in  every  country  where  the  English  tongue  is 
spoken.  It  was,  moreover,  just  three  hundred  years  since  Dr. 
Bright's  famous  first  work  on  Shorthand  was  published;  so  it 
was  resolved,  March  3,  1886,  at  a  meeting  of  the  council  of 
the  Shorthand  Society, — a  body  representing  the  writers  of  all 
systems  of  Shorthand, —  to  hold  a  Jubilee  in  London,  in  recog- 
nition of  Isaac  Pitman's  invention  of  Phonography,  and  of  his 
fifty  years  of  labor  for  its  development  and  dissemination;  and 
that  advantage  should  be  taken  of  the  event  to  call  an  Inter- 
national Gathering  of  Shorthand  writers  of  English  and  Euro- 
pean systems  of  Shorthand,  to  celebrate  the  Tercentenary  of 
the  origination  of  modern  Shorthand  by  Dr.  Timothy  Bright, 
in  1587. 

Mr.  T.  A.  Reed  and  Dr.  Westly-Gibson  (author  of  The 
Bibliography  of  Shorthand)  were  appointed  Chairman  and  Sec- 
retary, and  these  gentlemen  took  an  active  lead  in  making  the 
event  the  interesting  success  it  proved  to  be. 

The  preliminary  announcement  said  :  "It  is  proposed  to 
hold  in  the  Autumn  of  1887  an  International  Congress  of 
Shorthand  Writers,  of  all  existing  systems,  and  of  persons 

I2Q 


1 30          SfR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

interested  in  Shorthand  generally,  to  celebrate  conjointly  two 
events  of  importance,  (i)  The  Jubilee  of  the  introduction  of 
Mr.  Isaac  Pitman's  system  of  Phonography,  marking,  as  it 
does,  an  era  in  the  development  of  Shorthand  on  scientific 
principles.  (2)  The  Tercentenary  of  modern  Shorthand,  origi- 
nated by  Dr.  Timothy  Bright,  about  1587;  continued  by  Peter 
Bales,  1590;  John  Willis,  1602;  Edmond  Willis,  1618;  Shelton, 
1620;  Cartwright,  1642;  Rich,  1646;  Mason,  1672;  Gurney, 
1740;  Byron,  1767;  Mavor,  1780;  Taylor,  1786;  Lewis,  1812; 
and  many  others  in  past  generations;  and  finally  by  Mr.  Pit- 
man, and  other  English  and  Continental  authors  of  the  present 
day.  It  is  hoped  that  the  combined  movement  will  bring 
together  a  large  assembly  of  Shorthand  writers,  professional  and 
otherwise,  who  will  be  willing  to  work  fraternally  and  ear- 
nestly in  the  interest  of  the  science-art  which  has  for  three  cen- 
turies been  a  power  in  the  world  and  a  blessing  to  mankind." 

After  a  brief  resume  of  the  history  of  the  invention, 
development,  and  spread  of  Phonography,  and  a  reference  to 
the  labor  and  sacrifices  of  the  inventor  in  bringing  his  system 
to  completion,  the  prospectus  continued: 

"Like  so  many  inventions,  Phonography  appeared  at  the 
time  when  it  was  specially  required.  The  rapid  development 
of  the  newspaper  press  created  a  demand  for  Shorthand  work 
which  had  never  before  existed;  and  a  still  wider  and  more 
general  field  was  open  in  large  commercial  and  legal  offices, 
where  the  value  of  skilled  phonographers  was  gradually  recog- 
nized, to  such  an  extent,  indeed,  that  their  employment  is 
regarded  as  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity.  Increased  facili- 
ties were  offered  to  students  for  reporting  lectures  and  copy- 
ing extracts ;  and  for  friendly,  social,  and  intellectual  intercourse, 
the  new  medium  of  communication  was  hailed  with  gratitude 
by  thousands.  It  is  needless  to  add  anything  as  to  the  position 
which  the  system  now  holds  in  even'  English-speaking-and- 
writing  community.  Every  lover  of  phonetic  spelling  will 
readily  recognize  the  services  which  Mr.  Pitman  has  rendered 
in  that  direction  through  the  medium  of  his  system.  In  no 
more  effective  way  could  the  phonetic  principle  be  applied 
than  in  a  system  of  Shorthand,  daily  and  hourl)-  used  through- 
out the  country.  No  longer  the  dream  of  the  philologist  or 
the  educationalist,  the  principle  has  received  practical  embodi- 


PHONOGRAPHIC  JUBILEE.  1 3 1 

ment  and  application  in  Phonography,  and  the  attention  of  the 
public  has  thus  been  aroused,  to  an  extent  that  could  hardly 
have  been  attained  by  any  other  agency,  to  the  defects  and 
inconsistencies  of  English  orthography,  and  the  necessity  of 
removing  them.  It  is  believed,  therefore,  that  all  phonetic 
reformers  will  willingly  join  in  some  enduring  memorial,  which 
it  is  proposed  to  make  in  honor  of  Mr.  Pitman. 

"A  Congress  will  be  held  in  London,  at  which  papers 
will  be  read  and  discussed  dealing  with  the  history,  develop- 
ment, and  literature  of  Shorthand,  from  Bright's  days  to  Pit- 
man's ;  also  with  matters  of  a  more  practical  nature,  bearing 
upon  the  present  and  future  of  Shorthand,  and  the  prospects 
of  the  art  generally.  In  connection  with  the  Congress  it  is 
proposed  to  hold  an  Exhibition  of  Shorthand  works  of  every 
description,  including  books,  written  and  printed  in  Shorthand, 
stenographic  curiosities,  and  other  objects  of  interest.  There 
will  also  be  opportunities  of  social  intercourse;  and  every  effort 
will  be  made  to  render  the  occasion  a  memorable  one  in  the 
history  of  the  art.  Whatever  funds  may  be  collected  will, 
after  paying  expenses  of  the  Celebration,  be  devoted  primarily 
to  some  method  of  recognizing  and  perpetuating  Mr.  Pitman's 
name  and  services,  his  own  wishes  being  consulted  as  to  the 
precise  mode  of  application." 

The  Phonographic  Jubilee  was  a  gathering  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Shorthand  systems  from  all  parts  of  the  world, 
France  and  Germany  being  especially  represented.  The  Con- 
gress was  held  at  the  Geological  Museum,  Jermyn  St.,  London, 
by  special  permission  of  the  Lords  of  the  British  Council. 
Five  days  were  devoted  to  topics  of  general  Stenographic 
interest,  and  one  day  was  specially  reserved  for  the  celebra- 
tion of  the  Jubilee  of  Phonography.  Lord  Rosebery  presided 
and  delivered  the  inaugural  address.  He  spoke  eloquently  of 
the  utility  and  value  of  Shorthand  for  professional  and  literary 
purposes,  and  of  its  great  importance  as  a  time-saving  instru- 
ment in  the  ordinary  business  affairs  of  life.  He  referred  to 
its  use  in  the  public  Government  offices,  and  that  he  had, 
when  in  office,  frequently  urged  its  employment  on  the  score 
of 'economy,  and  as  a  means  of  securing  more  efficient  service. 
So  essential  had  Shorthand  become  to  the  press,  in  business, 
in  judicial,  and  in  Government  affairs,  that  if  by  any  auto- 


1 32  SfK  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

cratic  power  its  employment  were  to  be  suspended  for  a  week, 
he  could  not,  by  any  stretch  of  imagination,  conceive  how  the 
world  could  get  along  without  it.  Growing  lads,  he  said, 
should  be  reminded  that  a  knowledge  of  Shorthand  was  indis- 
pensable in  a  mercantile  career,  and  to  all  who  aspire  to  clerical 
and  secretarial  posts. 

Wednesday  was  devoted  to  the  Phonographic  celebration. 
At  the  morning  conference,  Isaac  Pitman  read  a  paper  on 
"The  Spelling  Reform,  and  How  to  Get  It;"  in  the  afternoon 
he  contributed  a  paper  on  "The  Genesis  of  Phonography," 
giving  some  of  the  details  of  the  construction  and  development 
of  Phonography  already  mentioned  in  these  pages.  He  said  he 
was  able  to  fix  the  exact  date  of  the  publication  of  Stenographic 
Soundhand  from  a  letter  dated  14  of  November,  1837,  written 
to  Mr.  Samuel  Bagster,  the  London  publisher,  which  accom- 
panied a  consignment  of  two  hundred  copies  of  his  little  book, 
out  of  three  thousand,  of  which  the  edition  consisted. 

It  cannot  be  stated  with  certainty,  but  I  think  this  was 
the  entire  number  of  the  crude  little  pamphlet  that  were  ever 
sent  to  the  eminently  respectable  London  publishing  house. 
The  remainder  were  sold  by  my  brother,  or  were  given  to 
friends  and  correspondents  for  their  use  and  for  free  distribution  ; 
for  it  was  not  long  after  its  publication  before  it  was  seen  how 
vastly  the  scheme  could  be  improved,  phonetically  and  steno- 
graphically,  as  is  shown  in  the  edition  of  1840,  which  was  com- 
pleted in  all  its  essential  details  early  in  1839. 

The  chief  event  of  the  Phonographic  Jubilee  was  the 
evening  meeting,  when  the  theatre  was  crowded  with  enthu- 
siastic phonographers  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  to  wit- 
ness the  unveiling  and  presentation  of  a  marble  bust  of  Isaac 
Pitman,  the  work  of  the  distinguished  sculptor,  Thomas  Brock, 
R.  A.  The  author's  long-time  friend,  Mr.  T.  A.  Reed,  was 
selected  to  make  the  presentation.  When  the  cheering  sub- 
sided, Isaac  Pitman  said:  "Mr.  Chairman,  and  my  dear  and 
affectionate  friends,  there  is  a  passage  in  the  Divine  Word  that 
has  rested  upon  my  mind  for  a  month  or  two  as  one  that  I 
could  use  on  the  present  occasion.  It  is  a  divine  inquiry  sub- 
mitted to  us  to  institute  a  kind  of  self-introspection  and  self- 
examination.  It  runs  thus:  'Seekest  thou  great  things  for 
thyself?'  If  we  put  that  question  to  our  own  hearts,  I  think 


PHONOGRAPHIC  JUBILEE.  133 

there  are  very  few  of  us  who  can  say  that  we  do  not.  The 
inquiry  is  followed  by  a  positive  command  from  the  Maker 
of  the  Universe,  'Seek  them  not.'  I  have  quoted  this  portion 
of  the  Divine  Word  for  the  purpose  of  saying  that,  consciously, 
that  passage  has  been  my  guide  from  my  youth  up.  Tonight, 
instead  of  feeling  that  I  am  a  kind  of  Roman  citizen,  and  that 
you  have  placed  a  civic  crown  upon  my  brow,  I  rather  feel 
in  the  condition  of  a  criminal  arraigned  before  this  Court  on 
the  charge  of  having  sought  great  things  for  myself.  I  fancy 
to  myself,  somehow,  that  our  venerable  chairman  is  the  Judge. 
If  he  were  but  bewigged,  which  would  well  become  him,  he 
would  be  an  admirable  Judge.  And  my  friends  upon  the  front 
row  seem  to  me  to  be  the  jury — the  Grand  Jury —  and  the 
seats  behind,  filled  with  the  public,  are  the  audience ;  and  now 
I  stand  before  you  in  some  sense  as  a  criminal  arraigned  before 
the  world  for  having  sought  great  things  for  myself,  and  I 
must,  from  my  heart,  declare  myself  'Not  guilty.'  If  you,  in 
your  clemency,  come  to  the  same  conclusion,  I  shall  go  from 
this  meeting  a  happy  man.  And  then  to  turn  to  this  bust; 
a  doubt  is  suggested  to  my  mind,  somehow,  and  I  cannot  get 
rid  of  it.  I  have  some  hesitation  in  deciding  which  is  the 
man  and  which  is  the  image.  I  must  really  appeal  to  Mr. 
Brock.  (Mr.  Brock  answered  with  a  smile.)  I  think  this 
(pointing  to  the  bust)  must  be  the  man,  such  as  he  ought  to 
be  for  purity  and  beauty,  and  this  (pointing  to  himself)  the 
imperfect  image.  I  only  wonder  how  my  friend  Mr.  Brock 
could  have  made  such  an  image  from  such  a  subject." 

After  alluding  to  the  necessity  for  a  brief  alphabetical 
system  of  writing,  he  said :  "  My  object  in  life  has  been  to 
make  the  presentation  of  thought  as  simple  of  execution  and 
as  visible  to  the  eye  as  possible.  Fifty  years  are  a  long  time 
in  the  life  of  a  man,  and  I  have  prosecuted  my  labors  for  that 
length  of  time,  and  though  I  cannot  say  that  we  have  got  in 
Phonography  the  best  Shorthand  outlines  for  every  word,  I  do 
maintain  that  we  are  not  very  far  from  it.  I  think  that  the 
only  thing  that  remains  to  be  done  is  to  select  any  words  that 
are  not  facile  and  beautiful  in  form,  easy  of  execution  by  the 
reporter's  hand,  consider  them  and  put  them  in  the  best  pos- 
sible form,  and  then  we  shall  have  completed  our  work." 
After  a  reference  to  the  Spelling  Reform  and  its  great  desira- 


i34 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


PHONOGRAPHIC  JUBILEE.  135 

bility,  he  said:  "Well,  my  friends,  I  accept  these  beautiful  gifts 
with  the  deepest  and  most  affectionate  gratitude  of  which  my 
nature  is  capable;  they  shall  be  a  stimulus  to  me  to  work 
on  in  the  same  line,  but,  if  possible,  with  increased  diligence 
and  faithfulness." 

Mr.  Pitman  was  the  principal  guest  at  the  luncheon  given 
to  the  members  of  the  Congress,  at  the  Mansion  House,  by 
the  Lord  Mayor,  Sir  Reginald  Hanson,  who  had  been  instru- 
mental in  introducing  Phonography  as  a  study  at  the  City  of 
London  School.  In  proposing  the  toast  of  the  "International 
Shorthand  Congress,"  the  Lord  Mayor  coupled  with  it  several 
well  known  names,  the  foremost  being  that  of  Mr.  Pitman, 
with  which,  he  said,  he  had  been  familiar  from  boyhood.  It 
had  been  a  matter  of  pleasure  to  him  to  follow  the  expressions 
of  sympathy  and  good  feeling  from  those  who  had  studied  his 
system  and  had  presented  him  with  a  testimonial  of  their  esteem. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Jubilee  Celebration  were  very  fully 
reported  by  the  London  Times,  and  by  other  metropolitan 
papers,  and  more  general  attention  was  called  to  the  educational 
and  commercial  uses  of  Phonography  than  by  any  previous 
occurrence  in  the  history  of  the  art.  The  proceedings  of  the 
Congress  were  published  in  London,  making  a  volume  of  460 
pages,  together  with  an  appendix  of  48  pages,  giving  a  catalog 
of  1451  volumes  of  Shorthand  systems,  pamphlets,  and  period- 
icals, etc.,  of  the  history,  use,  and  extension  of  the  art  in  English, 
French,  and  German. 

America's  contribution  to  the  Jubilee  was  a  handsome 
Gold  Medal,  which  was  struck  to  commemorate  the  event. 
The  address  accompanying  it  expressed  the  high  esteem  of 
American  phonographers  for  the  inventive  genius  that  had  origi- 
nated and  developed  so  admirable  and  useful  an  art  of  expressing 
thought ;  for  Phonography  was  a  system  of  Shorthand  founded 
on  scientific  principles,  and  unfolded  in  systematic  arrangement 
and  analogic  harmony.  It  was  the  first  in  which  the  simplest 
signs  were  employed;  the  first  in  which  cognate  sounds  were 
represented  by  cognate  .signs ;  the  first  in  which  those  elemen- 
tary sounds  admitting  of  classification  in  groups  were  repre- 
sented by  groups  of  analogous  symbols;  the  first  in  which 
the  attempt  was  made  to  give  circles,  hooks,  and  loops  distinct 
offices  for  efficient  service  in  the  stenographic  art.  By  it  the 


i36          S/X  ISAAC  P/TMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

language  was  for  the  first  time  successfully  presented  in  Short- 
hand on  a  phonetic  basis,  and  one  who  could  read  it  could 
hardly  fail  to  know  the  spoken  words. 

The  address  concluded  with  the  sincere  wish  for  "your 
health,  happiness,  and  prosperity  during  the  remainder  of  your 
career  on  earth,  and  that  your  life  may  be  spared  as  long  as 
existence  shall  be  a  pleasure  to  yourself  and  add  to  the  hap- 
piness of  others." 

The  address  was  signed 

EDWARD  F.  UNDERBILL,  ") 

ELIZA  B.  BURNZ,  ^  Committee. 

JAMES  E.  MUNSON, 

Subsequently  Isaac  Pitman  was  the  recipient  of  another 
testimonial,  on  this  occasion  from  his  fellow-citizens  of  Bath. 
It  consisted  of  a  replica  of  Mr.  Brock's  Jubliee  bust,  which 
my  brother  consented  to  receive  on  condition  of  its  being 
accepted  by  the  Literary  Society  of  Bath.  The  meeting  was 
held  at  the  Guildhall,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Mayor  of 
the  city.  The  presentation  was  made  by  Mr.  Murch,  who  said : 
"As  an  old  inhabitant  of  Bath,  representing  the  friends  whose 
names  are  inscribed  in  this  book,  and  indirectly  a  much  larger 
number,  I  beg  to  offer  this  bust  for  your  acceptance.  We  have 
heard  of  your  kind  intentions  respecting  it.  We  are  glad  to 
know  that  it  will  find  a  congenial  home  within  those  walls  where 
we  have  so  often  met  you.  We  hope  it  will  be  generally 
thought  that  the  sculptor  has  shown  his  accustomed  skill  and 
increased  his  well-known  reputation.  We  believe  that  to  your 
fellow-citizens,  to  the  young,  especially,  it  will  be  a  valuable 
memorial  of  one  who,  through  a  long  and  useful  life,  has  gained 
their  sincere  respect,  and  set  an  example  of  intelligent,  benev- 
olent perseverance.  May  you  still  be  blessed  with  health  and 
strength  for  many  years  to  continue  that  example,  to  share  the 
well-earned  pleasures  of  old  age  with  those  who  are  near  and 
dear  to  you, — 'love,  obedience,  honor,  troops  of  friends,' — and 
to  benefit  mankind  by  hastening  the  time  when  knowledge 
shall  cover  the  earth  as  waters  cover  the  channels  of  the  deep." 
In  acknowledging  the  testimonial,  Mr.  Pitman  said:  "If  I  were 
a  Stoic,  a  neat  sentence  of  thanks  might  suffice  for  acknowledg- 
ing this  beautiful  gift.  But  I  am  not  a  Stoic.  I  am  deeply 
moved  by  the  kindness  of  the  friends  who  have  subscribed  to 


PHONOGRAPHIC  JUBILEE.  137 

this  testimonial.  Whatever  of  honor  there  may  be  in  this  pre- 
sentation, I  refer  it  not  to  myself,  but  render  it  to  the  Lord, 
to  whom  all  honor  belongs.  The  Literary  Institution  has 
kindly  offered  to  accept  the  bust,  and  place  it  in  the  reading 
room,  and  I  have  much  pleasure  in  asking  Mr.  Murch,  as  the 
representative  of  the  Institute,  to  accept  it.  I  like  to  think  of 
English  literature  under  the  form  of  a  vast  temple,  with  a 
portico  supported  by  two  pillars,  on  one  of  which  is  inscribed 
the  single  word,  'Letters,'  and  on  the  other,  'Numbers.'  The 
temple  is  adorned  with  statues  of  men,  English  and  American 
who  have  made  the  literature,  the  science,  and  the  art  that  now 
illumine,  beautify,  and  bless  the  world.  No  one  is  permitted 
to  pass  the  portico  of  this  temple  who  is  ignorant  of  letters  and 
numbers  and  their  combinations.  These  little  marks,  'a,  b,  c'- 
and  '  i,  2,  3,'  that  seem  in  themselves  to  have  no  more  meaning 
than  the  marks  of  birds'  feet  in  the  snow,  are  really  the  foun- 
dation of  our  civilization.  There  can  be  but  little  trade  and 
commerce,  and  no  literature,  without  these  seemingly  insignifi- 
cant signs.  In  the  use  of  figures  we  are  consistent,  but  in  the 
use  of  letters  we  are  inconsistent.  Figures  always  represent 
certain  quantities  or  numbers,  but  letters  are  used  arbitrarily, 
and  long  and  weary  is  the  task  to  find  out  what  they  mean." 
Mr.  Pitman  spoke  at  some  length  of  the  necessity  and  impor- 
tance of  the  Spelling  Reform,  referring  particularly  to  what 
Max  Muller  called  the  "unteachable"  character  of  English 
orthography,  and  to  the  pitiful  waste  of  time  to  which  the 
young  were  subjected  in  attempting  to  master  its  difficulties 
and  absurdities. 

Early  in  the  following  year  a  gold  Jubilee  medal  was 
presented  to  Isaac  Pitman  at  a  public  dinner  in  London,  under 
the  presidency  of  Hon.  Viscount  Bury.  "Fifty  years  ago," 
said  his  lordship,  "Mr.  Pitman  found  Shorthand  in  a  very 
chaotic  condition ;  and  the  man  who,  out  of  such  elements, 
could  evolve  a  system  which  was  brief,  rapid,  legible,  and  easily 
acquired,  and  which  has  so  quickly  taken  the  foremost  place 
among  Shorthand  methods,  must  be  a  remarkable  man.  But 
he  has  done  more  than  that,  for,  by  his  indomitable  energy,  he 
has  brought  his  system  to  such  a  position  that  •  the  little  seed- 
ling which  he  planted  fifty  years  ago  is  now  spreading  its 
branches  over  the  civilized  world."  In  his  acknowledgment 


138 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


of  the  kindly  feeling  of  his  Phonographic  friends,  Mr.  Pitman 
said  that  he  was  able  to  announce  that  Phonograph}'  had  been 
adapted  to  the  Malagasy  language  by  the  Queen's  Private 
Secretary,  who  reported  the  speeches  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives in  Madagascar,  and  who  was  holding  weekly  classes 
for  instruction  in  Shorthand.  He  also  alluded  to  the  adaption 
of  Phonography  to  Spanish  and  Dutch,  and  was  .sanguine 
enough  to  avow  his  belief  that  the  Phonographic  art  would, 
in  time,  be  adapted  to  all  languages,  founded,  as  it  was,  on 
principles  of  universal  application. 


ISAAC  PITMAN  has  been  charged  with  being  "relentlessly 
strict"  in  suppressing  any  infringement  of  his  phonographic 
copyright;  "so  particular,  indeed,  that  many  so-called 
infringements  were  considered  by  legal  counsel  to  be  untenable, 
and  were  not  persisted  in,  in  order  to  save  the  long  and  har- 
assing process  of  legal  procedure."  (Wm.  Hope,  Phonographic 
World,  February,  1897.)  The  retention  of  his  copyright  was 
a  struggle  for  something  dearer  than  life;  for  my  brother 
deemed  its  control  essential  to  the  completion  and  general 
acceptation  of  his  all-important  ideal — the  universality  of  Pho- 
netic Writing  and  Printing.  On  every  point  but  this  Isaac 
was  the  embodiment  of  generosity,  but  any  encroachment  on 
territory  sacred  to  his  cause  and  secured  to  him  by  legal  rights, 
he  resented  with  judicial  severity.  When  I  began  publishing 
phonographic  books  in  this  country,  he  would  not  allow  me 
to  send  instruction  books  to  friends  in  England,  though  my 
object  was  simply  to  show  my  work  and  method  of  presenting 
the  system.  In  a  letter  bearing  date  of  n  November,  1856, 
in  referring  to  some  of  my  first  editions,  which  I  had  sent  to 
my  brother  Henry,  Isaac  wrote :  "I  do  not  know  what  books 
you  have  sent  to  Henry.  If  there  were  any  Manuals,  or  any 
books  whatever  for  teaching  Phonography,  please  send  no 
more,  because  it  is  dishonest  for  any  American  publisher  to 
send  phonographic  books  to  England,  where  the  work  is  copj-- 
righted,  and  would  take  away  my  sale  of  the  work."  That 

139 


1 40          S/R  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

this  prohibition  did  not  proceed  from  actual  selfishness,  is  shown 
by  the  following  extract  respecting  copyright  infringement. 
Isaac's  letter  is  dated  30  October,  1852,  only  a  few  months 
before  I  left  England:  "Three  serious  attempts  have  been 
made  to  rob  me  of  the  copyright  of  Phonography  in  this 
country,  not  to  mention  Henry's  threat  when  he  was  in 
Darlington."  [If  Isaac  would  not  print  some  phonographic 
exercises  which  Henry  desired  for  the  use  of  his  pupils,  he 
would  do  it  himself.]  "First  Cassell,  then  Withers,  and  now 
Heath,  of  Nottingham,  publishes  a  circular  for  getting  pupils 
among  the  respectable  classes,  and  announces  the  publication 
of  'Familiar  Lessons  in  Phonography,  or  Phonography  Taught 
without  the  Personal  Attendance  of  a  Master,  price  three 
shillings.'  I  shall  stop  it.  If  it  were  not  that  Phonotypy  needs 
the  profits  of  Phonography,  I  should  directly  throw  the  system 
up  to  the  booksellers,  and  earn  my  living  by  teaching;  but  I 
can  do  nothing  for  Phonetic  Printing  if  I  do  not  preserve  to 
myself  the  profits  of  my  three  Shorthand  teaching  books.  I 
wish  I  could  secure  the  copyright  of  the  system  for  you  in 
America,  but  there  is  no  possibility  of  doing  it,  and  you  must 
depend  on  the  sale  that  is  to  be  got  by  your  issuing  good 
books,  and  moderately  cheap." 

My  brother's  rule  to  stay  any  procedure,  which,  from  his 
standpoint,  might  imperil  his  copyright  and  hinder,  as  he 
thought,  the  success  of  the  phonetic  reform  in  Great  Britain, 
occasionally  worked  great  injustice  to  me  and  my  friends  on  this 
side  of  the  water.  An  American  phonographer,  wishing  to  repay 
some  kindness  on  the  part  of  a  friend,  a  professor  in  the  Edin- 
burgh University,  sent,  for  his  acceptance,  a  parcel  of  phono- 
graphic publications.  Among  the  books  were  my  Manual  and 
Reporter's  Companion ;  the  result  was  that  on  its  arrival  at 
Liverpool,  the  whole  package  was  confiscated,  and,  according  to 
standing  instructions  received  from  my  brother,  was  committed 
to  the  flames  by  the  custom  house  officials.  Books  of  engraved 
Phonography,  illustrative  of  the  system  that  I  may  have  issued, 
such  as  the  Book  of  Psalms,  History  of  Shorthand,  Manners 
Book,  etc.,  my  brother  would  not  have  hindered  :  but  if  the  parcel 
contained  any  instruction  books,  thus  interfering  with  his  copy- 
right, the  whole  package  would  be  condemned  and  burned. 

Still  more  extraordinary,  considering  the  endeared  relations 


HIS  COPYRIGHT.  141 

we  held  towards  each  other  during  all  our  previous  lives,  was 
my  brother's  conduct,  and  the  method  he  adopted  to  bring  me 
to  terms,  on  account  of  my  rejection  of  his  injudicious  and 
much-repented-of  changes  in  the  system, — the  use  of  large 
initial  hooks  on  curved  strokes, — which  he  introduced  into 
the  English  text  books  in  1862; — the  very  changes  which  he 
labored  so  energetically  during  the  last  six  years  of  his 
life  to  expunge  from  the  system  as  a  "defect"  and  "a  blot!" 
So  thoroughly  was  he  convinced,  at  the  time,  that  it  was  an 
improvement, — and  being  such  that  it  was  my  duty  to  accept 
and  advocate  it, — he  sought  to  force  me  to  accede  to  his  views 
by  supplying  his  books  to  teachers  and  others  in  this  country 
and  Canada  at  one-third  of  the  English  prices.  This  was 
done  to  suppress  my  publications  and  to  secure,  if  possible, 
the  exclusive  sale  of  his  own  instruction  books.  Equally 
convinced  was  I  that  my  brother's  proposed  changes  were 
wholly  undesirable,  and  this  view  of  the  case  was  enter- 
tained by  the  great  body  of  American  phonographers,  to 
whom  it  appeared  a  backward  step. 

The  impersonal  manner  in  which  Isaac  regarded  this  per- 
secution, as  it  seemed  to  me,  is  shown  in  a  letter  of  25  May, 
1883,  when  his  forced  attempts  to  suppress  my  books  had  con- 
tinued many  years.  After  referring,  in  no  unfriendly  terms, 
to  several  matters,  he  writes:  "As  to  the  main  topic  of  your 
last  letter,  my  selling  books  to  American  customers  at  one- 
third  English  prices,  you  must  remember  the  reason  for  it, 
namely,  to  institute  one  style  of  writing  in  the  two  countries. 
If  you  can  point  out  any  other  and  superior  plan  I  will  adopt 
it.  When  the  end  is  accomplished  I  shall  give  up  the  prac- 
tise." This  letter  commences  "Isaac  to  dear  Jtenn,"  and  the 
phonographic  word  "farewell"  is  crossed  with  a  double  frater- 
nal kiss  —  a  bit  of  phonographic  freemasonry  which  most 
phonographers  will  understand — showing  undiminished  love 
for  me  personally ;  but  my  phonographic  heterodoxy  he  would 
not  tolerate.  Additional  proof  of  the  absence  of  any  unbrotherly 
or  unfriendly  feeling  on  his  part  is  shown  in  a  letter  written 
one  year  before  this,  14  June,  1882.  "My  plan  of  supplying 
American  and  Canadian  phonographers  with  my  phonographic 
books  at  one-third  price  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  one 
style  of  writing  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  has  succeeded. 


i42          S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

It  is  impossible  now  for  either  of  the  three  variations  of 
Phonography,  in  addition  to  your  own — Longley's,  Munson's, 
and  Graham's — to  stand  against  the  English  presentation  of  the 
system.  My  trade  with  America  and  Canada  has  become  so 
large,  every  day  bringing  me  orders,  and  sometimes  ten  letters 
in  one  delivery,  that  I  want  to  be  relieved  of  this  labor  by 
giving  the  trade  in  books  into  your  hands." 

In  spite  of  the  drastic  measures  on  the  part  of  my  brother, 
and  the  sacrifice  it  entailed, — and  the  attempted  suppression 
of  my  books,  he  admitted,  cost  him  $40,000, — their  sale  did  not 
seem  to  be  affected  in  any  appreciable  degree ;  and  in  less  than 
ten  years  after  this  Isaac  began  to  realize  that  the  changes  which 
he  made  such  great  sacrifices  to  establish  were  not  improve- 
ments, but — to  use  his  own  words — "a  blot  upon  the  system," 
and  the  late  years  of  his  life  were  devoted  with  tragic  earnest- 
ness to  induce  English  phonographers  to  return  to  the  former 
practise,  to  which  I  had  adhered  and  had  established  as  the 
American  standard. 

Isaac  Pitman's  attempt  to  starve  a  brother  and  sister, 
whom  he  devotedly  loved,  for  disagreeing  with  him  on  certain 
stenographic  theories; — the  over-conscientious  physician  who 
refused  to  prescribe  for  that  beautiful  soul,  Lucretia  Mott, 
because  she  had  become  somewhat  heterodox  in  Quaker  faith ; 
— Calvin,  sending  his  friend,  Cervetus,  to  the  stake  for  non- 
acceptance  of  his  own  harsh  creed ; — John  Wesley's  denuncia- 
tion of  his  friend,  Thomas  Maxfield,  for  daring  to  preach 
without  his  special  permission*; — Kaiser  William's  belief  that 
he  has  the  Divine  right  to  make  other  people  believe  as  he 
does; — are  not  these  examples  of  pure  hallucination?  When 
people,  otherwise  sensible,  are  so  overwhelmingly  convinced  of 
the  importance  and  correctness  of  their  special  theory,  creed, 
or  course  of  action,  that  all  argument  is  as  powerless  to  effect 
any  change  as  when  addressed  to  the  absolutely  insane,  are 
not  such  the  victims  of  hallucination  ? 


*He  (Wesley)  left  Maxfield  in  charge  of  the  Society  in  London  .  .  He  began  to  prfttcli. 
and  the  Lord  so  blessed  his  word  that  many  were  deeply  awakened  .  .  It  was  an  irregu- 
larity; it  required  Wesley's  presence  to  put  a  stop  to  it  .  .  He  hastened  to  London  .  . 
His  mother,  perceiving  marks  of  displeasure  in  his  countenance,  inquired  the  cause. 
He  replied.  "Thomas  Maxfield  has  turned  preacher,  I  find."  Mrs.  Wesley  looked  at  him 
seriously  .  .  "Take  care,  John,  what  you  do  with  respect  to  that  young  man,  for  he  is  as 
surely  called  of  God  to  preach  as  you  are"  .  .  Wesley  heard  Maxfield  preach  and  at  once 
expressed  his  satisfaction  and  his  sanction. — Life  of  Wesley,  by  Sou  they. 


IT  was  as  early  as  1843  that  my  brother  made  the  acquaint- 
ance and  secured  the  literary  cooperation  of  Mr.,  afterwards 

Dr.,  A.  J.  Ellis.  Mr.  Ellis  had  given  special  attention  to 
the  analysis  of  the  sounds  of  language  before  he  ever  heard 
of  Phonography,  but  his  studies  and  labors  had  reference  to  the 
possible  completion  of  a  Printing  Alphabet  for  the  correct 
representation  of  all  languages.  On  learning  of  the  existence 
of  Phonography,  Mr.  Ellis  immediately  put  himself  in  com- 
munication with  the  author  of  the  system,  and  from  the  first 
proved  himself  one  of  the  ablest  and  safest  of  my  brother's 
advisors.  He  was  the  foremost  of  those  earnest  phonographers 
by  whose  suggestions  and  patient  experimenting  those  great 
improvements  were  incorporated  into  the  system  that  distin- 
guished the  Ninth  from  all  previous  editions,  and  which,  in  all 
essentials,  is  the  American  Phonography  of  today.  In  1845, 
Mr.  Ellis  completed  his  adaptation  of  Phonography  to  Foreign 
•  languages,  which  Isaac  Pitman  added  to  his  Manual  as  an 
appendix,  and  his  scheme  continues  to  be  the  standard  mode 
of  expressing  French,  German,  and  other  foreign  sounds  as 
used  by  English  and  American  phonographers  today. 

Mr.  Ellis's  chief  interest,  however,  was  centered  in  my 
brother's  phonotypic  experiments,  which  first  assumed  a  prac- 
tical shape  in  the  January  number  of  the  Phonetic  Journal 
for  1844,  in  which  the  first  practical  examples  of  phonetically 
printed  English  were  given,  where  every  printed  word  pre- 
sented to  the  eye  an  unerring  picture  of  the  spoken  word. 

Mr.  Ellis  was  profoundly  impressed  with  the  importance 
of  employing  a  Phonetic  alphabet  as  a  desirable,  nay,  necessary 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

instrument  in  national  education,  in  that  it  furnished  the  only 
means  by  which  reading,  spelling,  and  writing  could  become 
general  among  the  great  body  of  the  English  people.  Towards 
the  close  of  1846,  my  brother  secured  the  pecuniary  coopera- 
tion of  Mr.  Ellis.  A  partnership  was  entered  into  by  these 
two  phonetic  enthusiasts  with  little,  if  anything,  beyond  a  verbal 
understanding,  wherein  it  was  agreed  that  Mr.  Ellis  was  to  give 
his  time,  ability,  and  means  to  the  furtherance  of  the  typic 
department  of  the  reform,  while  Isaac  Pitman  was  to  give  his 
time  and  energies  to  Phonography,  leaving  the  income  which 
the  sale  of  the  instruction  books  was  beginning  to  yield 
wholly  to  my  brother. 

By  the  joint  efforts  of  Isaac  Pitman,  Mr.  Ellis,  and  a  host 
of  earnest  helpers,  a  thoroughly  practical  phonotypic  alphabet 
had  by  this  time  been  decided  upon.  The  embryo  printing 
establishment  of  my  brother  was  handed  over  to  Mr.  Ellis, 
who  took  upon  himself  to  relieve  my  brother  from  the  heavy 
drafts  to  which  he  had  before  been  subject  in  experimenting 
with  new  types.  Fonts  of  different  size  phonotypes  were  now 
ordered — each  new  letter  requiring  five  new,  costly  steel  punches 
to  be  cut,  for  large  cap,  small  cap,  and  lower  case,  Italic  cap 
and  lower  case  Italic ;  new  presses  were  obtained,  a  new  print- 
ing office  was  opened,  and  the  bills  for  all  were  promptly  paid 
by  Mr.  Ellis,  who  now  took  up  his  residence  in  Bath,  so  that  he 
might  give  his  undivided  attention  to  the  details  of  his  philan- 
thropic enterprise. 

After  events  showed  that  nothing  could  have  given  such 
prominence  and  dignity  to  Isaac  Pitman's  fondly  cherished 
hopes  as  the  countenance  and  aid  of  a  man  of  Mr.  Ellis's 
literary  and  social  standing.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  good 
birth,  ample  fortune,  and  university  training,, and  the  influence 
he  brought  to  bear  reached  outside  the  Phonographic  field  to 
which  Isaac  Pitman's  labors  had  necessarily  been  confined. 
While  the  Phonotypic  Reform  was  confessedly  for  the  unedu- 
cated, to  help  the  ignorant  to  read,  and  to  save  children  from 
the  time-wasting  perplexities  of  the  ordinary  spelling,  it  was 
evident  that  this  could  be  done  only  by  first  reaching  the 
intelligent  classes,  the  teachers,  the  patrons  of  schools,  and  the 
publishers  of  books,  magazines,  and  newspapers.  At  that  time 
my  brother's  phonetic  propagandism  had  scarcely  touched  the 


DR.  ALEX.  J.  ELLIS.  145 

intellectual  world.  His  name  was  unknown  save  to  the  com- 
paratively few  who  were  interested  in  Phonography.  Mr. 
Ellis's  aim  was  to  reach  the  great  world  outside.  He  took 
charge  of  the  Phonetic  Journal,  established  the  Phonetic  News, 
a  weekly  newspaper,  and  began  the  publication  of  elementary 
readers  and  school  books,  and  reprinted  in  Phonotypy  a  number 
of  the  English  classics. 

A  widespread  interest  was  aroused  in  favor  of  the  Phonetic 
movement.  Experimental  classes  for  instruction  in  Phonetic 
reading  were  formed  and  taught  in  many  of  the  cities  and 
towns  of  England  and  Scotland.  Classes  of  ignorant  adults, 
ignorant  but  reformed  drunkards,  classes  of  prisoners  in  jails, 
were  taught  to  read  by  means  of  tablet-letters  and  primers  in 
a  surprisingly  short  space  of  time.  Numerous  classes  of 
ignorant  children  in  Reformatories  and  Charity  schools,  as  well 
as  private  classes,  were  taught  to  read  with  precision  and  tol- 
erable fluency  in  from  two  to  three  months,  by  one  hour's 
daily  instruction.  An  added  interest  was  created  in  favor  of 
the  new  system  when  it  was  found  that  the  transition  from 
the  Phonetic  to  the  Romanic  letters  was  a  comparatively  easy 
task.  The  general  resemblance  between  the  old  and  new  styles 
was  so  great  that  the  pupil's  ability  to  read  the  new  method 
enabled  it  to  readily  decipher  the  greater  number  of  words  in 
the  common  print.  It  was  thus  demonstrated  that  the  easiest 
and  speediest  way  of  learning  to  read  Romanic  spelling  was 
to  begin  with  the  Phonetic  system. 

It  was  not  two  years,  however,  after  Mr.  Ellis  had  com- 
menced his  disinterested  labors  that  my  brother  persuaded 
himself  that  the  phonotypic  alphabet  ought  to  be  still  further 
improved.  He  grew  impatient  with  an  alphabet  that  used 
vowel  signs  to  represent  English  rather  than  European  analo- 
gies. Considering  the  future  universality  of  the  phonetic 
scheme,  he  regarded  this  not  merely  as  a  blemish,  but  an  error ! 
With  this  conviction  he  proceeded  to  advocate  using  the  vowel 
signs  z,  <?,  a,  with  slight  modifications  in  form,  to  represent  their 
European  instead  of  their  usual  English  values.  These  and 
other  changes  were  urged  with  great  persistency;  but  so  ill- 
timed  and  radical  a  change  of  the  1847  alphabet,  which  had 
proved  thoroughly  practical  in  teaching,  and  in  accordance 
with  which  an  imposing  number  of  books  had  been  printed, 


I46          S/tf  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

was  generally  considered  by  the  friends  of  the  reform  as  most 
undesirable  and  unwise. 

Mr.  Ellis  was  grieved  and  annoyed  by  my  brother's  insist- 
ence in  this  matter.  Mr.  Ellis,  I  think,  wrote  to  me  more 
freely  than  to  anyone  else  in  the  phonetic  field,  because  he 
knew  I  was  in  sympathy  with  his  views;  that  I  was  all  the 
time  publicly  advocating  and  teaching  the  1847  alphabet,  used 
in  his  publications,  and  that  for  theoretical,  as  well  as  practical 
teaching  reasons,  I  was  opposed  to  my  brother's  changes. 
But  Mr.  Ellis  showed  his  thoroughly  generous  nature  by  never 
hinting  to  me  or  to  anyone  else,  as  far  as  I  ever  learned, 
what  I  felt  was  the  true  state  of  the  case,  namely,  that  my 
brother's  impatient  zeal  led  him  to  adopt  a  course  at  once 
unwise,  ungenerous,  and  unjust,  in  that  it  minified  the  great 
sacrifices  Mr.  Ellis  had  made  for  the  Phonetic  Reform ;  it 
cast  a  slur  upon  his  labors  by  the  implication  that  there  was 
a  better  scheme  which,  he  might  adopt,  but  would  not,  and, 
more  than  all,  it  rendered  Mr.  Ellis's  publication  obsolete  in 
the  proportion  in  which  Isaac  Pitman's  proposed  changes  were 
accepted. 

The  following  extract  from  Isaac's  letter  of  25th  Septem- 
ber, 1849,  relates  to  the  collapse  of  Mr.  Ellis's  printing  estab- 
lishment. I  was  prepared  to  receive  the  news,  knowing  the 
impaired  state  of  Mr.  Ellis's  health,  and  how  unexpectedly 
large  a  portion  of  his  fortune  had  been  expended  in  his  Pho- 
netic venture ;  but  I  well  remember  that  I  read  this  letter 
from  my  brother  with  impatience  and  distress,  for  it  seemed 
to  show  a  tinge  of  exultation  at  the  stoppage  of  Mr.  Ellis's 
active  labors  for  the  spread  of  Phonotypic  printing;  an  effort 
which  I  regarded  then,  and  still  do,  as  intelligently  earnest 
and  nobly  generous. 

"The  finale  which  I  said  would  come  off  at  Albion  Place 
[Mr.  Ellis's  printing  office]  in  three  years,  has  come  already  ! 
The  whole  office  received  notice  to  dissolve  last  Saturday,  and 
the  type  and  workmen  will  be  turned  over  to  Saville,  the 
printer,  in  Chandos  St.,  London.  A  more  lamentable  illustra- 
tion of  'up  like  a  rocket  and  down  like  a  stick,'  I  never  saw. 
...  I  cannot  but  bless  the  good  angel  who  whispered  to  me 
last  January,  'Have  a  press  of  thy  own.'  .  .  .  These  were  the 
words  of  M.  as  I  was  lamenting  that  I  could  do  nothing  for 


DR.  ALEX.  J.  ELLIS.  147 

the  reform,  in  consequence  of  the  turn  things  had  taken.  We 
wish  to  regard  the  re-establishment  of  the  Journal  and  the 
resetting  of  my  printing  office  as  the  salvation  of  the  reform. 
.  .  .  Now,  my  brave  Benn,  brave  in  labors,  to  work,  to  work, 
to  work,  more  than  ever,  and  we  shall  see  alt  we  long  to  see." 

The  most  conservative  objector  to  the  Phonetic  movement 
could  not  have  devised  a  more  effectual  way  to  arrest  the 
progress  of  the  reform  than  my  brother's  impatient  zeal  proved 
to  be, — zeal  due  to  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  importance 
of  his  latest  theory,  where  even  his  moral  perceptions  were 
subordinated  to  a  mental  hallucination,  making  him  forget  his 
obligation  to  Mr.  Ellis,  and  the  personal  interest  and  rights 
of  his  co-laborer.  The  Phonotypic  Reading  Reform  movement 
was  in  a  most  unsettled  condition  from  '49  to  '52.  Teaching 
by  means  of  Phonetic  books  was  greatly  hindered  by  the 
never  ceasing  controversies,  on  really  unimportant  details. 
Isaac's  proposed  changes  were  not  generally  accepted,  and 
the  alphabet  which  Mr.  Ellis  had  used  was  far  more  generally 
approved,  and  what  teaching  was  done  in  schools  was  entirely 
by  means  of  that  alphabet.  During  this  period  I  was  in 
frequent  communication  with  Mr.  Ellis,  who  took  as  great  an 
interest  in  the  reform  as  ever.  A  letter  from  him,  bearing 
date  10  October,  1852,  is  interesting  as  giving  an  inside  view 
of  the  phonetic  position  at  the  time,  from  his  standpoint. 

"Alexander  John  Ellis  to  Benn  Pitman  :  I  was  very  much 
surprised  to  hear  you  had  ventured  to  do  something  for  phonetic 
printing,  or  'Reading  for  All.'  I  have  not  been  surprised  to 
find  you  have  done  but  little  of  late  in  this  respect,  for  with 
Isaac's  Journal  and  frequent  changes,  a  great  deal  of  determi- 
nation is  required  to  bring  the  subject  before  an  audience. 
In  1849  you  might  talk  of  it  as  a  settled  thing,  that  is  settled 
so  far  as  learners  were  concerned.  Now  it  is  very  difficult 
to  say  what  it  is.  The  'Changeling'  seems  its  best  name,  and, 
very  like  a  miserable  changeling  it  looks  in  the  pages  of  the 
Journal.  Your  brother  has  done  his  worst  for  the  Reform. 
He  does  not  seem  able  to  discover  that  he  cannot  possibly 
get  an  alphabet  in  which  every  one  shall  agree,  that  in  fact 
no  one  of  the  present  day  is  likely  to  concoct  an  alphabet 
which  shall  suit  those  who  have  been  from  the  first  taught  to 
read  phonetics.  My  little  boy,  four  and  a  half  years  old,  who 


148          S/fi  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


knows  no  other  style  of  reading  but  the  phonetic,  is  more 
capable  of  telling  what  is  to  be  done  than  Isaac,  or  you  or  I, 
who  have  all  manner  of  Romanic  nonsense  in  our  noddles. 
That  the  Phonetic  Council  will  accept  his  alphabet  as  a  whole, 
I  do  not  look  for  it.  The  members  may  do  it,  but  if  they  do, 
it  will  not  be  because  they  approve  of  the  alphabet,  but  because 
they  do  not  see  who  is  to  carry  on  the  reform  if  Isaac  does 
not,  and  he  declares  he  will  not  with  any  other  alphabet.  I 
do  hope,  however,  that  the  Council  will  have  sense  enough 
not  to  yield  to  this  piece  of  compulsion,  which  reminds  me 
very  much  of  Louis  Napoleon's  asking  for  votes  that  he 
should  decide  upon  the  Constitution,  threatening  that  if  peo- 
ple did  not  vote  for  him,  he  would  give  them  up  to  the  giant 
Grimgiber  (see  yesterday's  Punch)  of  the  Red  Republic. 
Isaac  won't  give  up  the  reform ;  he  cannot  do  it ;  and  he  will 
not  have  resolution,  I  think,  to  print  in  any  alphabet  that  the 
Council  have  refused.  And  though  he  has  shown  himself 
very  cavalier  towards  the  Council  since  the  trouble  of  the 
election  for  president  [Mr.  Ellis  was  elected  President],  he 
must  feel  that  if  the  Council  vote  against  him,  and  though  he 
appealed  (like  Louis  Napoleon  again)  to  'Universal  Sufferage,' — 


DR.ALEX./.ELUS.  149 

that'  is  to  the  votes  of  the  whole  Phonetic  Society,  —  he  has  put 
himself  in  a  very  false  position.  Now  I  should  find  it  very 
difficult  to  name  twenty  persons  in  all  England  (let  alone  the 
Council  and  the  Phonetic  Society)  that  are  really  in  any  respect 
qualified  to  decide  upon  these  matters  by  vote.  People  have 
not  the  experience  or  the  knowledge.  Isaac  knows  this 
as  well  as  you  or  I,  but  he  will,  of  course,  take  advantage  of 
the  votes  which  he  can  collect,  and  there  are  very  many  who 
will  vote  as  he  tells  them,  just  because  he  tells  them.  My 
own  impression  is  that  the  Council  will  decide  nothing.  .  .  . 
Your  handbill  is  a  very  judicious  one.  The  extracts  are  very 
good.  Of  course  the  extracts  relate  to  the  1847  alphabet  only. 
I  suppose  you  spoke  about  that  alphabet  only  ;  for  I  do  not 
see  how  }rou  could  speak  of  any  other,  as  Isaac  himself  has  not 
seemed  to  know  from  week  to  week  what  he  wanted.  And 
what  an  alphabet  he  has  now  got  up!  It  is  painful  to  my 
sight  ;  a  complete  clown's  jacket,  the  fool's  motley,  half  Latin- 
istic,  half  English,  half  Isaacish  —  if  such  a  thing  must  have 
three  halves  !  0  is  thrust  in  for  the  sake  of  the  Greek  ;  but 
the  Greek  o>  is  thrust  out  of  its  Greek  meaning  to  please  Isaac. 
//,  Ee,  must  have  their  "European"  sense,  but 

Oo.   Uu,  l\, 


are  quite  English.  Kk  must  be  used  because  of  its  "European" 
employment,  but  it  is  not  used  by  half  of  the  nations  of  Europe, 
and  Jj  must  be  kept  in  its  English  sense.  What  trash  !  I  have 
no  patience  at  having  my  intellect  insulted  by  such  a  com- 
position. Then,  Isaac's  spelling.  But,  dear!  I  wish  he  would 
teach  a  young  child  to  read,  and  learn  what  is  the  meaning  of 
phonetic  spelling,  for  he  seems  to  have  lost  all  recollection  of 
it.  As  for  the  opinions  of  the  great  majorities,  out  of  those 
who  gave  their  opinions  upon  the  different  subjects,  they  did 
not  seem  worth  much,  but  when  they  are  in  the  slightest  degree 
opposed  to  his  views,  he  shows  that  he  does  not  consider  them 
worth  anything  ;  when  they  corroborate  what  he  says,  then 
they  are  all  in  all.  With  kind  wishes  to  yourself  and  wife, 
here  and  in  America,  if  you  really  get  there  —  and  I  think  you 
will  have  a  fine  field  there  —  farewell!" 

When  I   had   resolved   to  come   to   this  country,  Mr.  Ellis 


i. So          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

wrote  a  letter  which,  contrary  to  his  customary  style, — an 
exceedingly  distinct  and  fully  vocalized  Phonography, — was 
written  in  longhand,  evidently  with  the  thought  that  thus 
written  it  might  be  of  service  to  me.  As  it  refers  to  some 
labors  of  mine  in  furtherance  of  the  Phonetic  Reform,  which 
conclusively  showed  the  practical  nature  of  the  1847  alphabet, 
and  the  advantages  of  phonotypy  in  facilitating  the  acquire- 
ment of  the  Romanic  print,  I  give  it  here,  more  out  of  respect 
for  his  memory  and  gratitude  for  his  friendship,  than  for  any 
care  I  have  for  praise  of  my  own  work  ;  that  is  a  feeling  I 
can  honestly  say  I  have  long  outgrown. 

"7  Apsley  Place,  Redland,  Bristol. 
3  Jan.,  1852. 

"My  dear  Mr.  Benn  Pitman  : 

.  .  .  "I  have  many  times  felt  it  my  duty  to  say  in  public  and 
in  private  concerning  your  exertions,  which  no  one  can  appre- 
ciate more  than  myself,  that,  notwithstanding  the  duties  of  your 
arduous  profession,  you,  in  the  most  disinterested  manner, 
devoted  much  time  and  great  labor  to  the  dissemination  of  the 
Phonetic  principle  of  reading,  and  your  efforts  were  crowned 
with  the  most  brilliant  and  deserved  success.  The  experiments 
which  you  instituted  at  the  Pauper  Schools,  at  Swinton,  near 
Manchester,  upon  a  class  of  fifty  of  their  dullest  children ;  upon 
the  criminals  at  the  Preston  House  of  Correction ;  and  the 
Glasgow  Bridewell ;  your  foundation  of  the  Manchester,  Preston, 
and  Sheffield  Phonetic  Schools  for  adults,  have  only  to  be 
mentioned  to  show  the  important  part  which  you  played  in 
giving  a  distinct  character  and  practical  value  to  the  Phonetic 
Principle.  But  when  I  consider  that  you  made  these  experi- 
ments at  a  time  when  they  were  most  needed,  that  in  fact  you 
were  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first,  who  ventured  upon  such 
bold  experiments,  and  who  undertook  the  labor  of  requesting 
and  were  successful  in  persuading  public  authorities  to  allow 
a  fair  and  convincing  trial  of  Phonetic  reading  to  be  made 
in  cases  which  would  severely  test  its  practical  value,  and  that 
after  having  done  so  you  labored  cheerfully,  assiduously,  and 
without  any  reward  but  the  feelings  of  your  own  conscience, 
till  you  triumphantly  proved  the  truth  of  all  the  statements 
and  promises  you  had  made,  then  I  feel  it  no  more  than  your 
due  to  declare  that  you  have  done  more  than  anv  one  indi- 


DR.  ALEX.  J.  ELLIS.  1 5 1 

vidual  in  England  in  propagating  and  establishing  the  phonetic 
principle  of  teaching  to  read.  The  labors  of  your  brother 
Isaac  and  myself  in  preparing  the  ground  and  furnishing  the 
means,  by  books  and  alphabets,  would  have  failed  of  the  greater 
part  of  their  effect  but  for  your  timely  exertions;  and  as  I 
am  fain  to  hope  that  the  introduction  of  the  Phonetic  principle 
of  reading  in  the  practical  form  which  it  has  now  assumed 
will  prove  of  great  national  advantage,  I  thank  you,  in  the 
name  of  those  who  will  experience  its  benefits,  for  having  been 
one  of  the  first  to  furnish  the  decisive  experiments  on  which 
we  rely  for  inducing  the  educationalists  of  our  country  to  give 
it  their  consideration  and  support. 

"With  every  good  wish  and  every  expectation  of  hearing 
of  your  success  in  the  New  World,  I  remain, 

Yours  very  truly, 

Alex.  J.  Ellis." 

Half  a  century  after  the  time  and  occurrences  here  narrated, 
an  unprejudiced  judgment,  it  is  believed,  may  be  pronounced 
with  reference  to  Phonetic  history,  and,  measurably,  of  its 
future  prospects.  From  the  present  standpoint  it  seems  clear — 

1,  that  the  adoption  of  the  Phonetic   principle    in    the   printed 
representation    of  the   language,    from    an    educational,  social, 
political,  and  cosmopolitan  point  of  view,  is  eminently  desirable  ; 

2,  that  it  would  be  a  change    of  habit   of  so   radical   a   nature 
that  it  cannot,  by  any  possibility,  be  suddenly,  or  even  speed- 
ily, brought  about;  3,  that  the  adoption    of  the  Phonetic  prin- 
ciple of  typic   representation    must   be  preceded  by   a   general 
recognition  of  its  utility   and   importance,    as   the    only   means 
of  ridding   the   language   of    an    imperfect   alphabet,    and    the 
resulting  false  and  perplexing  spelling — (hence  the  importance 
of  Phonetic  propagandism,  and  instruction  by    means    of  even 
a    not-perfect    Phonetic   alphabet,    as   tests   of  its  practicability 
and  advantages)  ;  4,  that  the  general  practise  of  Phonography, — 
in  which  a  full  Phonetic  Alphabet  is  used,  and  the  true  alpha- 
betic  principle    applied  to    writing, — will  greatly  aid    in  bring- 
ing about  the  ultimate  adoption  of  the  Phonetic  principle  in  the 
typic  representation  of  the  language;  5,  that   the    change    from 
a  false  to  a  true  representation  of  the  languagje  will  be  gradually, 
but  certainly  brought  about,  not  only  as  an  educational  necessity 
and   a    social   and   political   desirability,    but   as  a   commercial 


1 52  SJK  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

necessity,  from  the  fact  that  correct  spelling,  with  a  Phonetic 
Alphabet,  will  save  one  quarter  of  the  present  cost  of  all  printed 
matter;  6,  that  the  precise  forms  of  letters  to  be  used  for  the 
representation  of  sounds  is  comparatively  unimportant,  so  long 
as  the  principle  of  a  "sign  for  a  sound"  is  recognized,  as, 
whatever  forms  may  at  first  be  adopted,  future  use  will,  in 
all  probability,  change  and  improve  them;  7,  that  a  Phonetic 
Alphabet,  with  some  objectionable  forms,  would  be  better  than 
the  present  alphabet  and  the  heterogeneous  orthography  of 
to-day — that  it  would  be  an  educational  and  national  blessing 
to  have  an  alphabet  as  ugly  as  the  Russian,  rather  than  con- 
tinue to  use  the  present  one  and  suffer  from  its  time  and  temper- 
wasting  perplexities;  8,  that  a  complete  Phonetic  representa- 
tion of  the  language  will  be  preceded  by  the  gradual  employ- 
ment of  an  amended  Spelling,  that  is,  an  approach  to  consist- 
ency, by  the  phonetic  use,  as  far  as  possible,  of  the  present 
twenty-six  letter  alphabet,  which  will  prepare  the  way  for  the 
ultimate  acceptance  of  a  complete  Phonetic  Alphabet  of  forty 
letters ;  9,  that  the  constant,  never-ceasing  mania  for  change 
and  improvement  in  the  forms  of  the  measurably  complete 
alphabet  of  '47,  by  Isaac  Pitman,  did  more  to  check  the  spread 
of  Phonetic  Reform,  stop  practical  teaching,,  and  dampen  the 
ardor  of  those  friendly  to  orthographic  consistence,  than  all 
other  causes  combined ;  10,  that  some  consolation  may  be 
derived  from  the  fact, — it  being,  perhaps,  a  necessary  evolution- 
ary process, — that  future  experimenters  will  be  saved  trouble 
and  expense  by  the  avoidance  of  the  forms  of  the  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  "tried  and  rejected"  letters, — 
costly  "literary  remains,"  for  catalogue  of  which  see  next 
chapter. 


154 


ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 


HIPpiMia^^iMpnirlTllnrOTrii  ,JL 


7ku  Acvnd  AWMU  met  , 


-mtu/ 
h      wn  and 


frat  jwt 

—  -facvt 


, 

Zf&iuvt,  and  fietfrt  . 
ax.  jm  ct&z 


ML    fri 

frcu,   Jwind  ! 


tn  timei  a.  for  i  in  jj.t,cn  ea 


A  T  AHE  representation  of  Language  by  Alphabetic  characters, 
I  and  its  manifold  uses  in  writing  and  printing,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  prime  factor  in  modern  civilization. 
Without  it  progress  would  be  slow  and  culture  impossible ;  for 
the  Press,  its  embodiment,  is  the  special  instrument  that  stimu- 
lates, formulates,  modifies,  and  shapes  thought,  commerce,  and 
conduct.  Yet,  strange  to  say,  while  no  single  element  of  civ- 
ilization is  of  greater  use  and  importance,  none  can  be  shown 
to  be  more  defective.  It  is  the  growth  of  ages  of  civilization, 
and  never  before  was  its  employment  so  vital  to  life  and 
progress  as  it  is  today,  and  its  very  universality  is,  probably, 
the  chief  impediment  to  its  improvement. 

Reading,  writing,  and  spelling  are  the  rudimentary  arts 
that  stand  at  the  threshold  of  educational  training,  but  the 
difficulty  of  mastering  them  is  so  great  that  it  is  generally 
supposed  to  be  incidental  to  their  nature.  The  time  and  effort 
spent  in  the  acquirement  of  these  elementary  arts  are  felt  to 
be  a  great  tax  on  the  patience  of  every  teacher,  and  every 
parent  who  acts  the  part  of  instructor.  Foreigners,  however 
intelligent,  who  aim  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  English,  express 
their  amazement  at  the  contradiction  between  the  words  that 
meet  the  eye,  and  their  sounds  as  they  appeal  to  the  ear ;  and, 
with  reason,  express  their  keen  regret  at  the  difficulty  and 
waste  of  time  necessary  to  master  the  thousand-fold  eccentrici- 
ties of  English  spelling.  Custom,  which  reconciles  us  to  many 
glaring  anomalies,  often  blinds  even  the  intelligent  to  the 
grave  consequences  of  this  defect,  and  tends  to  stifle  investi- 
gation into  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  cause.  Yet  the  cause 
is  plain.  An  Alphabet,  theoretically,  contains  a  letter  for  each 
sound  in  the  spoken  language,  and  it  is  easy  to  believe  that 
were  this  really  the  case,  reading  and  spelling  would  be  as 


156  S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

simple,  and  nearly  as  easy,  as  is  the  reading  and  writing  of 
numbers,  after  once  learning  the  shapes  and  values  of  the 
Arabic  numerals;  and  it  would  be  so  if  the  alphabet  provided 
a  sign  for  each  sound  and  uniformly  used  it  to  represent  one 
and  always  the  same  sound. 

The  young  scholar,  on  opening  his  primer,  soon  discovers 
the  deficiency  of  the  present  alphabet,  and,  alas,  its  falsity. 
He  readily  learns  that  s-o  is  so  and  n-o  is  no,  but  when  he  is 
corrected  for  saying  that  t-o  is  not  toe,  but  too,  he  begins  to 
feel  a  distrust  of  letters,  finding  that  they  are  not  true  to  their 
alphabetical  names.  As  he  progresses  he  is  further  puzzled  on 
finding  that  when  o  occurs  in  other  words,  it  has  neither  the 
sound  of  owe  nor  oo,  and  that  in  son,  on,  women,  wolf,  fork, 
choir,  etc.,  the  letter  has  a  different  sound  in  each  word,  while 
in  reasoning  it  has  no  sound  at  all.  Another  perplexing  diffi- 
culty presents  itself  when  he  discovers  that  the  alphabet  not 
only  fails  to  provide  a  letter  for  the  vowel  in  to,  do,  etc.,  but  that 
when  this  sound  does  occur  in  a  word,  it  is  represented  in 
variously  arbitrary  ways,  as,  for  example :  by  oo  in  food,  by  on 
in  soup,  by  u  in  ruling,  by  vie  in  true,  by  ii-e  in  rude,  by 
ough  in  through,  by  ooe  in  wooed,  by  eu  in  Reuben,  by  ou-e  in 
bourse,  by  ew  in  brew,  by  ew-e  in  brewed,  by  o-e  in  move,  by 
oeu  in  manoeuvre,  by  oe  in  shoe,  by  ui-e  in  bruise,  by  ui  in 
bruised,  by  wo  in  two,  by  out  in  surtout,  by  w-o  in  who,  by 
hu  in  rhubarb,  by  heu  in  rheum,  by  ouz  in  rendezvous,  and  <?«' 
in  Cowper  (as  the  poet  pronounced  it),  and  that  neither  book 
nor  teacher  can  give  him  a  rule  which  will  enable  him  to 
spell  or  write  the  next  wrord  he  meets  with  that  happens  to 
contain  this  sound.  The  young  student  soon  discovers  that  a 
similar  misuse  of  letters  is  resorted  to  when  other  sounds  are 
to  be  expressed  that  have  no  representative  sign  in  the  present 
alphabet. '  Instead  of  using  letters  to  represent  unvarying 
sounds,  as,  theoretically,  they  are  supposed  to  do,  ever}-  letter 
is  used  for  some  other  than  its  alphabetic  power !  The  first 
letter  a,  for  example,  has  its  alphabetic  power  in  fate,  but  it 
has  other  and  unlike  sounds  in  fall,  fat,  father,  many,  want, 
etc.,  and  the  young  student  asks  in  vain  for  a  rule  to  determine 
what  sound  he  is  to  give  it  in  any  one  of  these  and  like 
examples. 

To  the  perplexity  due  to  the  varying  and  arbitrary  powers 


ALPHABETIC  REFORM.  157 

of  letters,  is  to  be  added  the  varying  and  equally  arbitrary 
representation  of  sounds.  It  might  reasonably  be  supposed  that 
when  the  alphabet  does  provide  a  letter  for  the  representation 
of  a  given  sound,  that  it  would  be  uniformly  used  for  its 
assigned  alphabetic  power;  but  what  alphabetic  key  enables  a 
child,  after  being  taught  n-o,  no ;  g-o,  go,  to  correctly  pro- 
nounce other  words  containing  this  letter,  such  as  do,  one,  sot, 
women,  wolf,  cork,  choir,  or  to  discover  that  it  is  mute  in  sea- 
soning ?  And  when  the  learner  has  to  spell  or  write  a  word 
containing  the  sound  of  o,  shall  he  use  o  as  in  post,  or  oa  as 
in  boat,  or  oe  as  in  doe,  or  ow  as  in  know,  or  wo  as  in  sword,  or 
owa  as  in  towards,  or  ew  as  in  shew,  or  eau  as  in  beau,  or  au  as 
in  hauteur,  or  eaux  as  in  Bordeaux,  or  ough  as  in  though,  or  og 
as  in  oglio,  or  ol  as  in  yolk,  or  ot  as  in  depot,  or  owe  as  in  0z#<?, 
or  oo  as  in  brooch,  or  <?z^  as  in  sewed,  or  a#^  as  in  Pharaoh,  or 
#-<?  as  in  fow^,  or  oh  as  in  0^,  or  oa-e  as  in  Soane,  or  0w-<?  as  in 
Knowles,  or  0££  as  in  Cockburn  f 

As  there  is  no  rule  governing  these  perplexing  diversities, 
it  may  be  truly  said  that  the  language  is  not  alphabetically  repre- 
sented, and  that, — as  is  the  case  in  an  ideagraphic  representation, 
like  the  Chinese, — each  word  of  the  language  has  to  be  separately 
committed  to  memory,  both  as  to  its  spelling  and  pronunciation. 
No  wonder  that  years  are  spent  in  the  wearisome  endeavor  to 
master  English  orthographic  and  orthoepic  anomalies.  Can  it 
be  said  that  they  are  ever  mastered  ?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  after 
years  of  schooling,  college,  and  university  training,  we  are  never 
certain  as  to  the  correct  pronunciation  of  a  word  that  is  seen 
for  the  first  time,  but  which  we  have  never  heard  pronounced ; 
or  the  customary  spelling  of  a  word  that  is  heard  for 
the  first  time,  but  which  we  have  never  seen  written  t  Yet 
a  tolerable  acquaintance  with  reading  and  spelling  is  necessary 
for  the  most  elementary  education,  and  it  would  be  dishearten- 
ing to  the  young  student  were  he  told  how  formidable  the  task 
really  is.  In  Dr.  A.  J.  Ellis'  "Plea  for  Phonetic  Spelling,"  care- 
fully compiled  tables  are  given,  showing  the  extent  of  the  per- 
versity of  English  orthography,  the  examples  proving  that  the 
twenty-six  letters  of  the  alphabet  are  used  in  six  hundred  and 
forty-two  different  ways,  and  that  the  forty  sounds  of  our 
language,  instead  of  being  represented  by  forty  letters,  are 
really  represented  in  not  fewer  than  six  hundred  and  fifteen 


i58          S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

different  ways  !  So  utterly  does  our  so-called  orthography  devi- 
ate from  a  true  alphabetic  standard,  that  of  the  two  hundred 
thousand  words  which  may  be  said  to  constitute  the  language, 
not  more  than  about  one  hundred  simple  ones,  such  as  be,  so, 
no,  post,  mild,  etc.,  are  pronounced  as  they  are  spelled,  and  all 
the  remainder  are  spelled  in  one  way  and  pronounced  in  another, 
and  therefore  have  to  be  separately  memorized. 

Words  alphabetically  spelled  are,  indeed,  rare  exceptions. 
If  the  reader  will  scan  the  preceding  paragraph,  which  con- 
tains 315  words,  he  will  find  that  only  five, — we,  be,  he,  so,  no, — 
are  spelled  correctly,  that  is,  with  the  alphabetic  powers  of  the 
letters,  the  remainder  being  spelled  in  one  way  and  pronounced 
in  another,  and  for  which  no  rule  can  be  given. 

More  than  a  hundred  years  ago  practical  Dr.  Franklin, 
among  others,  gave  much  thought  to  the  question  of  alphabetic 
reform,  being  greatly  impressed  with  its  necessity  and  impor- 
tance. The  existing  system,  or  want  of  system,  Franklin 
regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  general  education. 
In  the  new  order  of  things  which  he  helped  to  establish,  it 
would  doubtless  seem  eminently  desirable  that  the  education 
of  the  youth  of  the  young  Republic  should  not  be  hindered 
by  the  literary  shackles  of  a  false  and  antiquated  orthography. 
His  suggestions  and  improvements  were  sensible  and  practical, 
but  were  far  from  being  a  sufficient  remedy  for  the  colossal 
disorder;  he  is,  however,  to  be  honored  for  his  prophetic 
encouragement;  "sooner  or  later,"  he  said,  "something  must 
be  done."  When  the  waste  of  time  and  temper  incidental  to 
an  insufficient  alphabet  are  considered,  and  that  many  more 
millions  of  English-speaking  children  are  now  concerned  than 
in  Franklin's  day,  it  is  gratifying  to  be  able  to  pay  a  tribute 
to  the  intelligent  foresight  of  this  pioneer  phonetic  reformer, 
by  noting  that  there  has  been,  since  his  day,  a  slow  but 
unvarying  tendency  in  American  spellings  towards  a  phonetic 
standard.  Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  Webster's 
Dictionary,  in  1826,  we  have  become  perfectly  reconciled  to 
drop  the  useless  «  in  labor,  honor,  etc.,  and  to  economize  in 
check,  plow,  wagon,  etc.,  instead  of  plough,  cheque,  waggon ;  and 
many  sensible  people  prefer  catalog,  Prolog,  program,  to  the 
longer  forms,  and  are  quite  willing  to  return  to  the  olden  spell- 
ing,— the  favored  custom  of  the  poets, — and  write  /  instead  of  the 


ALPHABETIC  REFORM. 


i.S9 


-">  «    -     c   u — sgac-^— •*£-*— ^ — >. — >s 
fte»  tfcink  tbat  if^wtreVforeiflier 


aid  Ijad  to  set  about  learning 


lito  _^eeciit   tlje    total  "abseicT  »r7il«1 
•ett)od,   and 


absurd  «?</,  for  the  final  sound  in  the  past  tense  of  words  ter- 
minating with  a  whispered  consonant,  as  stopt,  ceast,  sipt,  etc., 
instead  of  stopped,  ceased,  sipped ;  and  using  d  instead  of  ect,  when 
the  final  sound  is  a  vocal,  as  roard,  aimd,  bravd,  etc.,  instead  of 
roared,  aimed,  braved.  In  a  few  newspapers  and  periodicals  of 
wide  circulation,  many  useless  and  misleading  letters  are  already 
dropped,  and  the  words  though,  through,  have,  etc.,  give  way 
to  the  shorter  and  more  sensible  spellings,  tho,  thru,  hav,  etc. 
Ere  long  k  and  s  will  be  used  \vith  uniform  consistency. 
Superfluous  c  will  be  dropped,  and  k  will  be  used  in  can,  as  in 
king,  etc.,  and  ^  will  be  the  initial  letter  in  civil,  as  well  as  in 
sit.  A  like  uniformity  will  be  insisted  on  in  the  use  of  g  and 
/;  g  will  be  always  used  for  the  sound  in  give,  and  j  as 
uniformly  employed  for  that  in  ginger.  Thus  amended  and 
systemized,  English  spelling,  with  the  present  alphabet,  will 
be  shorn  of  many  of  its  absurd  and  misleading  difficulties. 


160          S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Probably  the  first  move  towards  an  extended  alphabet  will  be 
when  some  owner  of  a  linotype  awakens  to  the  economy  and 
advantage  of  using  single  types  for  the  simple  sounds  ///,  as 
in  the,  them,  etc.,  and  for  sh,  as  in  shall,  and  for  ti  and  si  in 
the  frequently  recurring  terminations  tion,  tial,  etc.  If  the 
spelling  of  words  were  thus  phoneticised,  as  far  as  practicable, 
the  slight  change  in  the  appearance  of  the  printed  page  would 
be  tolerated  and  soon  preferred,  if  only  as  authorizing  a  sim- 
pler spelling,  and  for  the  unquestioned  benefit  it  would  be  to 
the  young ;  this  attained,  the  adoption  of  a  complete  alphabet 
and  a  wholly  truthful  spelling  would  be  among  the  assured 
blessings  of  the  succeeding  generation. 

Theoretically,  the  problem  of  phonetic  spelling  is  simple, 
and  its  attainment  easy;  practically,  it  is  difficult,  and  mainly 
because  of  the  tremendous  inertia  of  the  existing  custom,  that  is 
accepted  and  daily  used  by  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  English-speaking  people,  who,  from  years  of  constant 
use,  are  more  or  less  familiarized  with  the  incongruities  of  the 
customary  spelling,  and  who  think  they  would  be  inconvenienced 
by  accepting  a  new,  though  a  better  and  more  truthful  scheme. 
When  it  is  considered  that  the  addition  of  seventeen  satisfactory 
new  script  and  typic  letters  would  complete  the  present  alpha- 
bet,— c,  q,  and  x  being  rejected,  as  superfluous, — and  that  the 
learning  of  forty  letters  would  enable  a  person  to  read,  without 
hesitation,  any  printed  or  written  word,  and  to  correctly  spell 
any  word  that  reaches  the  ear,  the  problem  seems  so  simple 
and  the  result  so  desirable  that  it  seems  amazing  the  remedy 
is  not  immediately  and  universally  demanded. 

The  first  step  in  the  attempt  to  represent  the  language 
satisfactorily,  that  is,  to  perfectly  visualize  speech,  so  that  the 
printed  page  shall  picture  the  sounds  that  reach  the  ear  when 
the  words  are  spoken  or  read  aloud,  is  to  determine  what  are 
the  elementary  sounds  of  human  speech.  There  is  little  diffi- 
culty here,  after  the  past  sixty  years'  discussion  of  the  subject, 
provided  the  general  and  popular  speech  of  the  people  be 
accepted  as  the  standard,  without  regard  to  certain  niceties 
and  shades  of  pronunciation  that  distinguish  the  speech  of  a 
few.  The  Phonetic  Movement  which  has  resulted  in  the 
settlement  of  many  questions  once  in  dispute,  is  told  in  the 
fifty  years'  issue  of  Isaac  Pitman's  Phonetic  Journal.  Before 


ALPHABETIC  REFORM.  161 

coming  to  a  decision,  point  by  point,  upon  the  manifold 
differences  of  pronunciation  and  the  most  fitting  representation, 
deciding  first  what  were  the  sounds  that  people  used  in  speech, 
or  thought  they  used,  such  lengthy  discussions  occurred  that 
for  years  orthoepic  agreement  and  a  satisfactory  representation 
seemed  among  the  most  perplexing  of  human  problems.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  "absolute  truth"  of  representation,  in  quest 
of  which  Isaac  Pitman  set  out,  came  to  be  somewhat  of  a 
compromise.  Only  gradually  did  it  become  evident  that  as 
human  organisms  are  indefinitely  varied,  making  the  vocaliza- 
tion of  individuals  to  vary,  consequently  no  two  human  beings 
pronounce  a  given  word  in  exactly  the  same  way,  because  the 
form,  position,  force,  and  point  of  contact  of  the  vocal  organs 
necessar)1-  for  the  production  of  a  given  sound,  not  being  the 
same  in  any  two  human  beings,  the  resulting  sound  will  not, 
with  any  two  persons,  be  absolutely  the  same.  That  which 
it  was  found  wise  to  agree  upon  was  an  alphabet  and  an 
orthoepy  that  would  be  accepted  and  used  by  the  majority  of 
educated  people,  and  not  attempt  to  provide  for  shades  of 
pronunciation  that  were  recognized  only  by  the  super-critical. 

Much  discussion  has  taken  place  as  to  whether  the  alphabet 
should  represent  elementary  sounds  only,  or  whether  the 
diphthongal  glides,  i  in  time,  oi  in  boy,  and  ow  in  cow,  should 
or  should  not  be  represented  by  a  single  letter.  If  the  ques- 
tion were  left  to  teachers,  it  would  doubtless  be  decided  affirm- 
atively, especially  with  respect  to  the  diphthong  /,  eye,  (Ji)igh, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  vowel,  more  than  any  other,  is 
differently  pronounced  by  the  English,  Australian,  and  American 
branches  of  the  English-speaking  world. 

On  carefully  examining  a  well  printed  page,  the  eye  is 
arrested  by  the  uniformity  and  beauty  of  the  Romanic  forms. 
They  are  the  culmination  of  innumerable  experiments  by  scribes 
and  artists,  extending  over  thousands  of  years,  embracing  the 
skill  and  taste  of  both  the  Eastern  and  Western  worlds,  and 
they  have  been  completed,  say  perfected,  by  the  exacting 
demands  of  modern  type-makers  and  type-users.  The  legibility, 
distinctness,  and  symmetry  of  the  Romanic  letters  are  never 
so  fully  appreciated  as  when  an  attempt  is  made  to  invent 
new  forms  of  equal  beauty,  and  the  seeming  impossibility  of 
doing  this  presents  "the  first  difficulty  in  the  path  of  the 


1 62 


S/X  /SAAC  P/TMAX'S  LIFE  AXD  LABORS. 


^o  I  as  in  eel 

~    *r>  a  7 

ale 


,  as  in  <nl,  on/,  as  moid 


balm  yTt 
tame 
dame 
church 


rfle 
thitih 
tKy 

seal 

teed 

'shall 

azitre 


ALPHABETIC  REFORM.  163 

alphabetic  reformer.  New  letters,  however,  must  be  added  if  we 
would  complete  an  alphabet  for  the  English  language.  But 
to  find  satisfactory  forms  for  the  seventeen  sounds  that  at 
present  have  no  representative  letters,  is  no  easy  task,  and 
the  phonetic  reformer  of  the  future  will  be  wise  who  avoids 
spending  a  moment  in  devising  new  forms  before  he  has  care- 
fully examined  the  following  formidable  list  of  letters  that  were 
suggested,  cut,  cast  into  types,  and  tried  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods  in  the  printed  page,  by  Isaac  Pitman  and  Dr.  Ellis, 
and,  after  a  fair  trial,  rejected  as  unsatisfactory,  either  for  lack 
of  distinctness,  symmetry,  or  beauty,  "spotting"  the  page,  or  for 
incongruity,  as,  for  example,  using  the  superfluous  consonant 
x  to  represent  some  vowel. 

This  list  of  rejected  letters,  and  experiments  with  them 
in  printed  matter,  represents  an  outlay  of  more  than  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  Coincident  with  experiments 
in  new  Roman  forms,  there  were,  of  course,  attempts  to  devise 
suitable  corresponding  Italic  and  script  forms  for  both  capital 
and  small  letters. 

REJECTED    PHONOTYPIC    FORMS. 

I  I  X  E  A  0  O  O  ¥  U  $  *I  M  q  W  *  V  £  Z  rJl  R  L  M  N 

M  U  II 


M  N  M 

i  i  i  i  i  I  e  a  q,  a  a  a  a  c  c  u  .u  ti  u  u  u  u  u  M  \\  Q  o  n;  v  u  j  i  i  .i  q  6 
M  tq  m  y  y  y  3  i  $  5  T  v  I  B»  it  H  *  f 

In  the  preceding  page  Isaac  Pitman's  latest  Script  Alphabet 
is  presented. 

The  examples  of  phonotypy  on  the  following  page  illus- 
trate the  principal  stages  of  phonotypic  development,  as  shown 
in  the  pages  of  Isaac  Pitman's  Phonetic  Journal,  and  in  the 
printed  pages  of  his  phonetic  books,  from  1844  to  1860.  If  it 
were  asked  how  any  sane  man,  with  normal  vision,  could 
expect  that  such  a  presentation  of  English  as  the  1844  example 
would  be  accepted  by  the  English  speaking  race  as  a  substi- 
tute for  the  present  iypic  representation  of  the  language,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  frame  a  satisfactory  reply.  In  extenuation 


1 64          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

of  its  crudeness, — a  relative  crudity,  be  it  remembered,  due  to 
the  more  critical  vision  which  subsequent  experiments  have 
given  us, — it  might  be  said  that  it  was  better  than  anything 
which  had  been  done  before,  that  it  was  the  result  of  a  great 
expenditure  of  thought,  time,  and  means,  and,  strange  to  say, 
vastly  to  be  preferred  to  many  attempts  at  phonetic  reform  that 
have  since  been  made  by  others  to  attain  the  great  desider- 
atum,— a  perfected  representation  of  English,  which  alone  would 
make  possible  its  acceptance  as  a  Universal  tongue. 

The  example  of  the  1847  phonotypy  is  the  alphabet  which 
was  adopted  by  Mr.  Ellis,  and  used  in  all  his  printed  books, 
in  the  Phonetic  Journal  while  under  his  control,  and  in  the 
pages  of  the  Phonetic  News,  his  weekly  newspaper.  It  is  the 
alphabet  by  which  the  most  satisfactory  results  were  obtained 
in  teaching  children,  ignorant  adults,  mission  pupils,  and  for- 
eigners to  easily  learn  to  read  English,  as  thus  truthfully  rep- 
resented. 

The  1852  alphabet  is  the  one  which  Isaac  Pitman  insisted 
was  to  be  preferred  to  the  '47,  and  all  preceding  alphabets,  in 
that  it  recognized  the  European  values  of  the  vowel  types,  while 
the  '47  alphabet  recognized  only  the  English  usage, — a  con- 
viction in  which  my  brother  lived  and  died,  but  which,  in  the 
opinions  of  the  majority  of  English  phoneticians,  was  the 
gravest  and  most  unfortunate  error  of  his  life. 


ALPHABETIC  REFORM. 


165 


No.  1,  January,  1844. 
j  E  A  e  /a  u  (heard)  H,  i  E  A  o  u  u, 

JL  O  tf  UT,  W  Y  H,  P  B  T  D  6  'J  C  G,  F  Y 
6  A  S  Z  2  2,  L  E,  M  X  U 

Specimen: 

J\'U0IU  HWOTEVER  IZ  MDR  TU  BJ 
DEZARD,  OR  MQR  DELATFIJL,  AAX  AE 
LAT  OV  TRH0:  FOR  IT  IZ  AE  SDRS'OV 

WIZDUM  HAVEN  AE  MA.KD  iz  HAR- 
AST WIA,  OBSKTTRITI,DISTRAKTED  B.I 
DOTS,  RENDERD  TORPID  OR  SADEND 
BA  IGNORANS  OR  F6LSIT1Z,  AND  TRH0 
IMERJEZ  AZ  FROM  A  DAKK  ABIS,  IT 
SA.XZ  FDR0  INSTANTENIUSLI,  LAK  AE 
SUN  DISPURSIW  MISTS  AND  VEPURZ, 
OR  L..X.K  AE  DON  DISPELIU  AE  ZEDZ  OV 
DARKNES. 

No.  3,  June,  1846. 
ieaeoui,  ieaouu,  jersu, 
wyh,  pbtdcj  cg.fvtdsz 
J  3, 1  r,  m  n  n. 

Specimen. 

Nutig  hwotever  iz  mor  tu  bi 
dezjrd,  or  mor  del^tful,  dan  de 
Ijt  ov  truit :  for  it  iz  de  sors  ov 
wizdum.  Hwen  de  mjnd  iz  har- 
ast wid  obsciiriti,  distracted  bj 
dsts,  renderd  torpid  or  sadend 
bj  ignorans  or  felsitiz,  and  truit 
emerjez  az  from  a  dare  abis,  it 
Jjnz  fort  iiistantaniusli,  Ijc  de 
sun  dispersig  mists  and  vapurz, 
or  Ijc  de  den  dispelig  de  Jadz  ov 
darcnes. 

No,  5,  Proposed  Jan.,  1852. 

tea.oe-11,  ieaouu,  j^ui,  w 
h,  pbtd<3Jcg,  fvddszjg, 
r,  m  n  g. 

Specimen. 

Nu6ig  hwotever  iz  mer  tu  bi 
dezjrd,  or  mor  deljtful,  dan  de  Ijt 
ov  tru^d :  for  it  iz  de,  SOTS  ov  wiz- 
dum. Hwen  de  mjnd  iz  harast 
wid  obscuiriti,  distracted  bj  dsts, 
renderd  torpid  or  sadend  bj  ignor- 
ans or  folsitiz,  and  tn^6  emerjez 
az  from  a  dare  abis,  it  Jjnz  ford 
instanteniusli,  Ijc  de  sun  dispersig 
mists  and  vepurz,  or  Ijc  de  don 
dispelig  <ie  Jeoz  ov  darcnes. 


i 


No.  2,  October,  1844. 
i  e  q  6  c  (heard)  o  o,  i  e  a  o  u  u, 
j  q  u  ui,  w  y  h,  p  b  t  d  (j  j  k  g, 
fvtdsz/3,  1  r>  m  n  g. 

Specimen. 

Nutig  hwotever  iz  mor  tu  bi 
dezjrd,  or  mor  dcl^tful,  dan  de 
ljt  ov  trot :  for  it  iz  de  sors  ov 
wizdum.  Hwen  de  mjnd  iz  har- 
ast  wid  obscuiriti,  distracted  \)\ 
diits;  renderd  torpid  or  sadend 
bj  ignorans  or  f61sitiz,  and  trot 
cmerjez  az  from  a  dark  abfs",  it 
fjnz  fort  instanteniusli,  IJk  de 
sun  dispersig  mists  and  vepurs, 
or  Ijk  de  d6n  dispelig  de  Jedz  ov 
darknes. 

No.  4,  Jan.,  1847. 

s  a  q,  e  o  ui,  ieaouu,  j  ty'iy  u,, 
w  y  h,  p  b  t  d  cj  j  c  g,  f  v  t  d  s  z 
J  3,  1  r,  m  n  g. 

Specimen. 

Nutig  hwotever  iz  mor  tu  be 
dezjrd,  or  mor  deljtful,  dan  de  Ijt 
ov  truit :  for  it  iz  de  sors  o  V  wiz- 
dum. Hwen  de  mind  iz  harast 
wid  obscu.riti,  distracted  bi  dsts, 
renderd  torpid  or  sad'nd  bj  ignor- 
ans or  felsitiz,  and  truit  emerjez 
az  from  a  dare  abis,  it  Jjnz  fort 
instantaniusli,  Ijc  dc  sun  dispersig 
mists  and  vapurz,  or  Ijc  de  den 
dispelig  de  Jadz  ov  dorcnes. 


No  6,  Romanic  Alphabet. 

aa,  bi,  cc,  dd,  ee,  if,  gg,  hA  it,  jj, 
k<?,  II,  mm,  nn,  oo,  p^j,  qe,  rr,  &s,  U, 

UK,  W,  WW,  X.CS,  jy,  ZZ. 

Specimen. 

Nothing  whatever  is  more  to  be 
desired,  or  more  delightful,  than 
the  light  of  truth:  for  it  is  the 
source  of  wisdom.  When  the  mind 
is  harassed,  with  obscurity,  dis- 
tracted by  doubts,  rendered  torpid 
or  saddened  by  ignorance  or  fals- 
ities, and  truth  emerges  as  from  a 
dark  abyss,  it  shines  forth  instan- 
taneously, like  the  sun  dispersing 
mists  and  vapours,  or  like  the  dawn 
dispelling  the  shades  of  darkness. 


NOT  the  least  of  the  difficulties  attending  the  construction 
and  introduction  of  a  philosophic  alphabet,  by  which 
the  phonetic  representation  of  the  language  is  made 
possible,  was  that  of  determining  what  were  the  actual  sounds 
of  many  words  and  classes  of  words,  and  what  letters  should 
be  put  on  paper  for  the  eye  to  translate  and  the  voice  to  fol- 
low. While  all  intelligent  people  are  interested  in  the  assurance 
that  they  speak  correct  English,  few  are  aware  of  the  wide 
limits  within  which  "correctness"  may  be  assumed,  being 
unaware  of  the  many  nice  but  marked  distinctions  which 
characterize  the  pronunciation  of  educated  people  of  different 
localities.  And  this  applies  to  all  branches  of  English-speaking 
people.  Equally  true  is  it  that  there  is  no  absolute  standard  of 
pronunciation.  Speech,  like  culture  and  civilization,  of  which 
it  is  the  outgrowth,  is  all  the  time  in  a  state  of  transition  and 
development.  Grammatical  and  orthoepic  changes  seem  to  fol- 
low the  law  of  progress  in  the  line  of  least  resistance.  The 
easiest  and  pleasantest  utterance  is  that  towards  which  use  doth 
tend. 

Modern  dictionaries, — marvels  of  elaboration,  erudition, 
scientific  and  conventional  completeness, — as  the  Century,  the 
Standard,  and  the  International  Webster,  not  to  overlook  the 
stupendous,  though  incomplete,  New  English  Dictionary,  edited 
by  Dr.  Murray  and  Mr.  H.  Bradley, — works  that  present  them- 
selves as  authorities,  not  only  vary  in  regard  to  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  many  words  and  classes  of  words,  but  they  leave  cer- 
tain questions  of  pronunciation  unsolved,  admitting,  by  infer- 
ence, that  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge  and  practise  the}' 
are  unsolvable.  Phoneticians  have  abundant  reason  for  thinking 
that  after  fifty  years  of  investigation  and  discussion,  pioneered  by 
Sir  Isaac  Pitman,  they  have  settled  a  great  many  perplexing 

167 


1 68          SJ&  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

questions  of  use,  practise,  and  application  ;  nevertheless,  there 
are  opinions  still  held  by  intelligent  persons,  which,  from  their 
standpoints,  may  be  regarded  as  yet  unsettled. 

For  example,  do  we  use  ch  or  sh  as  the  terminal  sound 
in  the  words  French,  bunch,  pinch,  filch,  etc.  ?  It  is  amusing 
to  find  so  great  a  stickler  for  the  right  thing,  as  Isaac  Pitman, — 
and  "right"  with  him  had  a  moral  side  to  it,  and  meant  more 
than  "correct", — giving  sh  in  his  Phonographic  Dictionary  for 
1846,  ch  in  the  edition  of  1850,  sh  in  the  edition  of  1852,  sh 
in  the  edition  of  1867,  and  ch  in  the  1878  and  subsequent  editions, 
as  the  correct  pronunciation  of  this  class  ot  words.  But,  with 
seeming  inconsistency,  sh  continued  to  be  used  in  a  few  words, 
as,  filch,  Welch,  in  editions  of  his  dictionary,  as  late  as  1883, 
1891,  and  1893.  H.  U.  Jansen  (Exeter,  England),  one  of  our 
early  patrons  and  phonetic  enthusiasts,  whose  opinion  Isaac 
Pitman  ranked  with  that  of  Dr.  Ellis,  Dr.  William  Gregory, 
Sir  Walter  Trevelyan,  and  a  few  others  of  his  early  advisers, 
insisted  that  it  was  "simply  absurd"  to  write  this  class  of  words 
with  other  than  sh  as  the  terminal  sound.  Dr.  Gregory  (Edin- 
burg)  characterized  the  use  of  ch  in  these  words  as  "the  greatest 
absurdity  possible."  A  still  further  difference  of  opinion  exists 
as  to  what  is  the  exact  nature  of  the  sound  usually  represented 
by  ch.  Admitting  French,  trench,  each,  to  be  preferable  to 
Frensh,  trensh,  bransh,  is  the  final  sound  in  the  former  words, 
and  initial  in  cheer,  chain,  chalk,  etc.,  a  simple  sound,  or  a  con- 
sonantal glide,  consisting  of  t-sh,  as  claimed  by  each  of  the 
dictionary  authorities  above  named,  and  by  lexicographers  and 
phoneticians  generally?  Dr.  Thomas  Hill,  in  discussing  this 
question  with  me,  said,  "It  is  unintelligible  to  me  how  a  person, 
with  a  normal  vocal  organization,  can  insist  that  ch  begins  with 
t,  or  regard  this  sound  to  be  other  than  a  simple  one;"  that  is, 
a  whispered  sound  exploded  from  one  point  of  contact,  in  con- 
tradistinction to  a  glide  from  the  /  to  the  sh  position.  If  one 
pronounces  mil-shell,  and  then  Mitchell,  he  may  readily  convince 
himself  (i)  that  the  latter  word  is  unlike  the  former,  and  (2)  that 
the  former  word  involves  a  glide  from  the  /  to  the  sh  position 
of  the  vocal  organs,  which  is  avoided  in  pronouncing  the 
latter  word.  If  these  inferences  are  admitted,  it  follows  that 
ch  is  a  simple  articulation,  and  not  a  compound;  i.  e.,  a  glide 
from  the  /  to  the  sh  position.  Of  course,  if  ch  is  a  glide  con- 


UNSETTLED  POINTS  IN  PRONUNCIATION.          169 

sisting  of  t-sh,  its  corresponding  vocal  consonant  j,  consists 
of  d-zh. 

There  are  local  distinctions  in  English  speech,  and  equally 
great  and  more  subtile  differences,  which  may  be  called  class 
distinctions.  If  it  could  have  been  foreseen,  half  a  century  ago, 
that  the  introduction  of  steam  and  electric  travel  would  make 
intercommunication  so  free,  easy,  and  universal  as  it  is  to-day, 
an  intelligent  person  would  not  have  hesitated  to  predict  that 
one  effect  would  be  to  make  the  pronunciation  of  English 
homogenous,  wherever  the  language  was  spoken.  How  far 
this  anticipation  is  from  being  realized,  and  how  wide  are  the 
diversities  yet  heard,  even  among  the  educated,  every  ear-trained 
traveler  is  aware.  In  the  very  interesting  life  of  John  Ruskin, 
by  his  friend,  W.  H.  Spielmann,  Ruskin's  speech  and  readings  are 
spoken  of  as  "r-less"  When  it  is  remembered  that  Ruskin, 
though  London  born  and  bred,  was  a  public  lecturer,  and  that 
the  latter  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  the  Northern  part  of 
England,  where  r-less  pronunciation  is  laughed  at  as  "cockney" 
speech,  it  is  surprising  he  did  not  outgrow  his  early  and  his 
university  habit,  and  that  his  ear  did  not  demand  a  more  finished 
pronunciation,  one  more  in  accord  with  his  inimitable  written 
English.  When  educated  Americans  hear  an  English  curate, 
of  Oxford  or  Cambridge  training,  say,  "Feah  the  Laud;  Onah 
the  King,  'e  thut  'ath  yahs  to  yah,  let  'im  yah !"  they  are 
amused  and  surprised  to  find  that  a  people  who  can  claim  a 
native  right  to  pure,  clean-cut,  robust,  pregnant  English,  should 
accept  without  protest  what,  to  the  average  American  ear,  is 
an  attenuated  and  ridiculous  patois. 

It  was  long  a  disputed  question  with  phoneticians,  and  is 
yet  practically  unsettled,  whether  the  long  i  in  eye,  time,  by,  etc., 
should  be  represented  by  a  single  type,  or  by  the  two  letters 
whose  sounds  are  supposed  to  make  the  diphthongal  glide.  But 
what  are  the  two  sounds  that  make  eye  ?  Isaac  Pitman  has  for 
years  used  ei.  The  average  American  would  prefer  at,  often 
recognizing  a  still  broader  a  in  Cairo,  Kaiser.  In  Knowles' 
English  Dictionary  (early  editions)  long  i  seems  to  be  recognized 
as  consisting  of  oi,  for  ice  and  noise  are  given  as  containing 
identical  sounds.  But  Mr.  James  Knowles,  whom  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  in  Belfast,  in  1868,  was  an  educated  Irish- 
man, and  his  pronunciations,  in  many  classes  of  words,  especially 


i7o  S/X  ISAAC  P/TMAX'S  LIFE  AXD  LABORS. 

in  unaccented  syllables,  indicated  the  usage  of  careful  speakers 
more  closely  than  did  the  phonetic  spellings  of  Isaac  Pitman 
during  the  first  ten  years  of  his  phonetic  labors,  and  whose 
pronunciations,  during  this  time,  in  unaccented  syllables,  especi- 
ally, would  have  been  considered  by  Knowles  as  provincial  and 
slovenly.  We  cannot,  however,  accept  Knowles  in  all  cases  as 
an  authority,  for  throughout  his  dictionary  he  gives  ripd,  kickd, 
cliancd,  etc.,  as  the  pronunciation  of  the  past  tense  of  rip,  kick, 
chance,  instead  of  ript,  kickt,  chanct.  He  fails  to  recognize  that 
d  is  an  unpronouncable  sound  in  such  cases,  and  that  /  invariably 
follows  a  whispered,  and  d  as  regularly  follows  a  vocal,  con- 
sonant in  this  class  of  verbs;  thus,  ribd,  bagd,  etc.,  indicate  the 
correct  pronunciation  of  ribbed,  bagged,  etc. 

It  is  a  growing  usage  to  make  no  distinction  between  the 
diphthong  u,  in  new,  tune,  pure,  beauty,  etc.,  and  that  in  youth, 
union,  ewes,  etc.  In  the  former  words,  especially  in  New  Eng- 
land, the  prevailing  custom  has  been  to  make  the  diphthong 
consist  of  e-oo,  and  in  the  latter  words  y-oo.  To  make  the  diph- 
thong u,  uniformly,  y-oo  is  certainly  easier  and  more  euphonious. 

The  pronunciation  of  a  class  of  words,  as  flute,  blue,  clue,  etc., 
where  u  follows  /,  seems  to  be  in  a  transition  state.  Careful 
speakers,  English  and  American,  have  heretofore  used  the  diph- 
thong, but  the  tendency  is  to  the  easier  pronunciation  floot,  bloo, 
cloo,  etc.  U  following  r,  as  in  rude,  rule,  etc.,  is  uniformly  oo, 
though  many  authorities  heretofore  favored  the  long  u. 

It  is  not  wise  to  decide  in  favor  of  an  established  habit  of 
pronunciation,  apart  from  consideration  of  what  it  is  desirable 
to  teach  the  child.  Perhaps  the  majority  of  educated  people  say 
soljur  chrischun,  queschun,  cenchury,  naychur,  etc.,  for  soldier, 
Christian,  question,  century,  nature,  etc.,  as,  fifty  or  more  years  ago, 
they  said  ejucation  for  education,  chune  for  tune,  juke  for  duke, 
hijyous  for  hideous,  etc.,  as  Walker  gives.  For  many  years 
phonetic  reformers  adopted  the  conventional  pronunciation  of 
the  former  words,  but  when  it  came  to  teaching  the  young,  it 
was  found  that  precision  and  etymology  were  factors  not  to  be 
overlooked,  and  that  to  begin  by  teaching  colloquial  pronuncia- 
tion, led  to  slovenly  and  vicious  habits  of  speech.  It  is  sur- 
prising that  Isaac  Pitman  and  Dr.  Ellis  ever  used  uh  (the  mur- 
mured vowel,  or  vocal  murmur)  in  the  first  syllables  of  abide, 
again,  majority,  etc.,  although  usually  so  pronounced,  —  instead 


UNSETTLED  POINTS  IN  PRONUNCIATION.          171 

of  a  as  in  ask.  For  many  years  after  he  attempted  to  write  and 
print  phonetically  he  used  chrisclmn  for  Christian,  nachur  for 
nature,  soljer  for  soldier,  etc.;  and  not  till  after  ten  years  of 
experimenting  did  he  consent  to  the  spellings  ofyoomor  instead 
of  yoomur  (humor),  canon  instead  of  canun,  questyon  instead  of 
questyun  (question).  In  adopting  a  more  precise  spelling  he 
says  (Phonetic  Journal,  April,  1852):  "Only  a  few  months  ago 
we  ourselves  had  so  strong  a  dislike  to  these  spellings,  when 
presented  in  phonetic  orthography,  that  we  could  not  seriously 
entertain  the  idea  of  printing  them." 

Shall  ex  as  in  exist,  examine,  exert,  etc.,  when  the  accent  is 
on  the  following  syllable,  be  ekz,  or  egz  ?  Shall  we  say  ekzist, 
ekzamine,  etc.,  or  egzist,  egzamine,  etc.?  Isaac  Pitman  favored 
and  used  the  former  pronunciation.  This  country  generally 
follows  the  latter. 

It  illustrates  the  evasive  nature  of  the  sounds  of  speech 
to  note  the  varying  opinions  held  by  phoneticians  as  to  the 
nature  and  use  of  the  coalescents  w  and  y;  sounds  which  have 
seemingly,  been  misunderstood  from  their  inconsistent  use  in 
the  ordinary  spelling,  where  they  are  made  to  do  duty,  now 
as  vowels,  at  other  times  as  consonants.  Lexicographers  and 
grammarians  say  w  and  y  are  sometimes  vowels  and  sometimes 
consonants.  The  fact  is,  they  are  neither.  They  rank  midway 
between  vowels  and  consonants ;  w  being  a  slightly  obstructed  oo, 
andjy  a  slightly  obstructed  e.  We  have  but  to  pronounce  oo-ay, 
first  distinctly,  then  more  rapidly  without  a  pause,  thus  causing 
a  closer  position  for  the  oo,  and  we  hear  way.  If  we  pronounce 
e-oo  without  a  pause,  we  hear  yoo ;  that  is  e-oo,  uttered  with- 
out a  hiatus  or  obstructing  pause,  becomes  you,  yew.  The 
coalescents  w  and  y  are  not  vowels,  but  are  like  consonants 
in  that  they  are  used  only  when  preceding  vowels ;  and  they 
are  not  vowels  in  that  they  cannot  be  sung, — that  is  indefi- 
nitely prolonged, — and  to  be  pronounced,  must  be  exploded  like 
consonants.  They  are  unlike  both  vowels  and  consonants  in 
that  they  never  terminate  an  English  syllable  or  word;  and 
they  are  like  vowels,  in  that  they  can  be  preceded  by  the 
aspirate  A,  as  in  whey,  wheel,  as  different  from  way,  weal,  and 
as  hew  or  Hugh  differs  from  you. 

Words  like  compose,  seize,  glaze,  enclose,  etc.,  usually  change 
the  final  z  to  zh  in  their  derivatives  composure,  seizure, 


172  SSX  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

glazier,  enclosure,  so  that  we  hear  compozhure,  seizhure,  gla- 
zhier,  enclozhure.  When,  as  in  this  class  of  words,  two  pronun- 
ciations are  sanctioned  by  our  leading  dictionaries, — some  giving 
compozure,  seizttre,  glazier,  enclozure, — the  spelling  and  pronun- 
ciation which  preserves  the  primitive  word  unaltered  is  to  be 
preferred,  and  will,  most  likely,  be  the  one  ultimately  adopted. 
In  like  manner  the  words  sex,  fix,  sense,  etc., — the  final  sound 
being  s  (the  whispered  z\ — their  derivatives  sexual,  fixture, 
sensual,  are  usually  pronounced  sekshual,  fikschure,  senshval 
To  correspond  with  the  rule  mentioned,  they  should  be  seksual, 
fixture,  sensual.  The  Century  dictionary  prefers  the  latter 
pronunciation. 

A  scheme  of  writing,  to  be  practical,  cannot  recognize 
vowels  of  more  than  two  lengths,  that  is,  long  and  short. 
Careful  speakers,  however,  in  certain  classes  of  words  use  a 
vowel  of  medium  length.  They  insist  that  a  preceding  the 
continuants  f,  th,  s.  and  sh,  as  in  laugh,  path,  master,  rash,  etc., 
is  longer  than  the  a  in  pat,  cat,  man,  etc.,  but  not  so  long  as 
the  a  in  alms,  psalm,  father,  etc. ;  and  also  that  the  o  in  lost, 
soft,  tossed,  long,  etc.,  is  longer  than  the  vowel  in  lot,  sot,  top, 
but  shorter  than  the  vowel  in  fall,  fault,  law,  etc.,  though 
of  the  same  quality.  The  vowel  in  past,  path,  master,  etc., 
we  contend  is  not  the  lenthened  a  in  pat,  sat,  etc.,  but  the 
shortened  a  in  palm,  father,  etc.  English  phonographers 
write  the  short  vowel  for  the  medium  length  one  in  both 
cases,  while  Americans,  more  consistently,  write  the  long  one. 
Phonography  provides  a  convenient  means  of  indicating  the 
precise  length  of  these  vowels,  if  required,  by  a  relative  shading 
or  thickening  of  the  vowel  sign. 

The  impolicy  of  cumbering  the  alphabet  with  letters  to 
represent  medium  length  vowels,  would  seem  the  only  justifi- 
cation for  Isaac  Pitman's  spelling  of  words  containing  long  e, 
when  not  accented.  The  English  use  of  the  same  vowel  in 
besides  as  in  bet,  re-vile  as  in  revel,  prefer  as  in  preference,  etc., 
is  unknown  here.  American  authorities,  without  exception, 
give  this  class  of  words  with  long  e,  and  never  with  the  e  in 
met,  but  note  that  in  the  pronunciation  of  the  former  words, 
where  the  accent  is  on  the  following  syllable,  the  e  is  some- 
what briefer  than  when  under  the  accent. 

Many  elocutionists    insist    on    recognizing    the   vanishing 


UNSETTLED  POINTS  IN  PRONUNCIATION,          173 

sound  in  the  vowels  a  and  6.  A  in  day,  nay,  rail,  and  o  in 
foe,  moan,  roll,  they  do  not  regard  as  strictly  simple  vowels. 
A  simple  vowel  is  a  vocalization  where  the  organs  of  speech 
remain  unchanged  during  its  utterance,  whereas  in  the  delib- 
erate utterance  of  words  containing  long  a  (when  not  followed 
by  r),  the  sound  vanishes  into  i  or  e,  while  6  vanishes  into 
oo.  This  usage  may  be  allowed  in  very  deliberate  utterance, 
but  a  nice  ear  and  caution  are  needed  to  avoid  making  it  a 
vocal  blemish.  Prof.  Bell,  in  his  Principles  of  Speech  and 
Elocution,  says:  "The  omission  of  this  final  element  of  these 
vowels  is  a  marked  provincialism"(!) 

The  vowel  a  preceding  r,  as  in  pair,  dare,  prayer,  etc.,  is 
generally  admitted  by  careful  speakers  of  English,  except  the 
Scotch,  to  differ  from  a  in  plate,  dame,  paint,  etc.  The  a  in 
the  former  words  is  a  somewhat  more  open  sound  than  when 
it  precedes  other  consonants,  and  a  further  difference  consists 
in  its  vanish  into  uh,  the  vocal  murmur ;  but  when  preceding 
other  consonants  the  vowel  position  of  a,  in  seeking  repose, 
vanishes  into  i  or  e. 

R  is  a  further  disturber,  in  that  it  causes  a  diversity  of 
pronunciation  and  representation,  in  certain  classes  of  words, 
between  American  and  English  phonographers,  which  may  long 
remain  unreconciled.  The  Phonetic  scheme  of  vowels  provides 
but  two  signs  to  represent  three  unlike  sounds,  as  heard  in  the 
following  words.  Lines  2  and  4  are  supposed  to  contain  the 
same  vowel,  though  differently  spelled. 

1.  set,  pen,  serried,  perish,  peril,  etc. 

2.  earth,  serve,  mercy,  firm,  first,  whirl,  etc. 

3.  cut,  rub,  sun,  hurry,  scurry,  etc. 

4.  word,  burst,  curse,  worth,  curl,  whorl,  etc. 
English   phonographers   write   lines  i  and  2  with   short  e, 

and  lines  3  and  4  with  short  u.  American  phonographers 
write  the  first  line  only  with  the  short  e,  and  lines  2,  3,  and  4 
with  the  short  u.  The  English  practise  of  writing  serve,  earth, 
etc.,  with  the  same  vowel  as  set,  pen,  etc.,  and  making  a  differ- 
ence between  firm,  first,  etc.,  and  furnish,  further,  etc.,  seems 
paying  deference  to  the  spelling  which  is  not  justified  by  the 
usual  pronunciation  of  educated  people. 

Whether  or  not  we  pronounce  the  k  that  is  indicated  in  the 
spellings  of  the  words  links,  banks,  sphinx,  unctious,  anxious, 


174          S/R  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

sanction,  etc.,  may  be  regarded  as  another  unsettled  question. 
When  ng  is  immediately  followed  by  s  or  s/i,  the  articulating 
organs,  in  gliding  from  the  ng  to  the  .$•  or  sh  position,  pass  over 
the  k  position,  but  as  the  k  is  not  articulated, — i.  e.  exploded, — 
it  may  be  claimed  that  it  forms  no  part  of  the  spoken  word, 
and  therefore  should  be  omitted  when  written;  and  that  things 
differs  from  thinks  only  in  that  the  former  word  terminates  with 
z  and  the  latter  with  s.  In  like  manner  thanked  is  not  thangkt, 
but  thangt ;  plumped  is  not  plumpt,  but  plumt. 

The  use  of  an  instead  of  a,  when  preceding  a  word  begin- 
ning with  a  vowel  or  silent  //,  was  probably  a  matter  of  con- 
venience in  pronunciation  before  it  became  a  rule  of  grammar. 
In  an  intelligently  conducted  newspaper  now  before  us,  a  lead- 
ing article  begins  with,  "An  unique  discussion,"  etc.  The  writer 
would  never  think  of  saying,  still  less  of  writing,  "  an  youthful 
discussion ;"  but  the  phonetic  absurdity  of  spelling  unique  with 
a  vowel,  and  youth  with  a  consonant,  cheats  the  eye  into  the 
belief  that  unique  needs  a  preceding  an.  The  reason  for  chang- 
ing a  into  an,  when  used  before  a  vowel,  is  to  avoid  the  embar- 
rassing hiatus  of  uttering  two  succeeding  vowels.  To  say  a 
other  is  not  so  easy  as  an  other  (another),  and  the  latter  practise 
is  to  avoid  the  hiatus  of  allowing  the  open  mouth  vocalization 
of  a  to  glide  into  the  easiest  of  the  (closed)  vocal  consonants, 
which  is  that  of  the  n  position ;  when  the  vocal  organs  are  again 
ready  to  open  for  the  utterance  of  any  word  commencing  with  a 
vowel.  Connected  with  {his  is  the  yet  unsettled  question 
whether  hotel',  historical,  etc., — where  the  accent  is  not  on  the 
first  syllable, — should  be  preceded  by  a  or  an.  The  aspirate  //, 
though  heretofore  considered  a  consonant,  is  not  to  be  so 
regarded.  It  is  not  a  contact;  it  is  merely  an  open  mouth, 
audible  breathing,  through  the  position  of  the  vowel  or  coales- 
cent  it  precedes.  While  therefore  it  is  correct  to  say,  a  history— 
the  accent  being  on  the  first  syllable — yet  when  the  accent  falls 
on  the  second  syllable,  making  'the  aspirate  less  emphatic,  many 
of  our  best  writers  prefer  the  easier  and  more  euphonious  phrase, 
"an  historical  account"  "an  hercd'itary  failing"  etc. 


A  ¥  AHERE  is  a  seeming 
!  absurdity  in  devot- 
ing a  chapter  to 
the  poverty  of  a  man  who 
never  knew  hunger  or 
want,  or  ever  lacked  shel- 
ter or  decent  attire.  It  is 
possible  for  a  man  to  be 
rich  in  spite  of  his  poverty, 
as  their  are  many  who 
are  poor  in  spite  of  their 
wealth.  The  narrative  of 
Isaac  Pitman's  life  would 
be  very  incomplete  that 
failed  to  tell  of  the  years 
of  keen  anxiety  that  came 
from  the  burden  of  debt, 
the  thought  of  the  looming 
type,  paper  or  printing  bill, 
for  which  he  was  unpre- 
pared, and,  still  worse,  the 
frequent  inability  to  pay 
the  weekly  wage  that  had 
been  earned  by  his  faithful 
helpers.  These  accompani- 
ments of  Isaac's  life  of  un- 
tiring industry  cannot  be 
more  fittingly  expressed  than  by  the  dreadful  word  that  heads 
this  chapter,  for  the  poverty  that  brings  meal  time,  and  nothing 
to  eat,  would  havabeen  thankfully  accepted  by  my  poor  brother 
in  exchange  for  the  pecuniary  straits  to  which  he  was  often 
reduced.  But  it  would  be  misleading  to  say  this,  and  not  to 
add,  that  Isaac's  life,  due  to  his  disciplined  nature  and  his  hope- 
fully placid  organization, —  still  more,  to  the  fact  that  his  time 
and  energies  were  wholly  given  to  work  of  his  own  choosing, — 
was  one  of  more  abiding  satisfaction  than  probably  falls  to  the 
lot  of  one  in  a  thousand. 

Thoroughly  as  we  believe  in  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montague's 
dictum  that  physical  pain  is  the  greatest  of  all  human  ills,  and 
hardest  to  be  borne,  compared  with  which  heart-aches  and 
mental  disquietudes  are  the  lesser  and  lighter  evils,  yet  the  fact 
is  dolefully  significant  that  many  find  their  mental  troubles  so 

175 


I76          S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

unbearable  that  the  poor  unfortunates,  rather  than  endure  them, 
seek  the  consolation  of  drowning,  hanging,  or  poison.  My 
brother's  temperament  was  such  that  he  endured  his  woes  in 
marvelous  faith  and  hopefulness,  which  I,  who  in  some  degree 
was  made  partner  in  his  troubles,  did  not  always  share.  To  me 
his  urgent  needs,  so  often  referred  to  in  his  letters,  were  grievous 
troubles,  and  were  an  ever-present  stimulus  to  do  everything 
that  hard  work  could  achieve  to  lighten  his  constantly-recurring 
monetary  burdens. 

It  did  not  lessen  my  brother's  disquietude  that  his  troubles 
were  of  his  own  making.  He  could  have  avoided  them  had  he 
been  less  faithful  to  his  ideal.  He  lived  in  the  thought  that  he 
had  certain  work  to  do,  and  do  it  he  must  and  would.  That 
typic  experiments  were  very  costly,  and  steel  punches  obtainable 
only  for  hard  cash,  were  mere  incidents  in  his  special  work,  of 
which  it  would  be  useless  and  unwise  to  complain.  The  work 
had  to  be  done,  and  no  one  can  look  into  that  placid,  determined 
face,  which  shows  Isaac  Pitman  at  forty-seven,  and  doubt  that 
in  spite  of  difficulties,  small  and  great,  he  was  the  one  able  to 
overcome  them — a  determination  very  significantly  expressed  in 
his  own  words,  "I  would  go  on  doing  all  in  my  power  to  spread 
Phonotypy  and  Phonography  were  I  sure  that  I  should  be 
hanged  for  it  in  the  end."  This  sentence  concludes  one  of  his 
letters,  and  though  finishing  with  a  note  of  laughter,  was  as 
deep-seated  a  conviction  as  any  he  ever  expressed. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  give  the  following  extracts  from  my 
brother's  letters,  without  the  reminder  that  his  correspondence 
with  me  was,  perhaps,  more  confidential  than  with  any  one  else. 
Then  again,  the  reader  should  bear  in  mind  that  phonographic 
letters  are  written  with  a  freer  hand  and  mind  than  ordinary 
longhand  epistles.  Phonography  is  often  called  "talking  on 
paper."  Longhand,  which  may  be  likened  to  slow  talk,  tends 
to  make  the  writer  formal,  cautious  and  deliberate,  while  Pho- 
nography, by  giving  to  the  hand  the  tongue's  freedom  of  expres- 
sion, is  more  likely  to  be  an  impress  of  the  writer's  unrestrained 
feelings.  During  the  ten  years  I  spent  in  England  lecturing  on 
and  teaching  Phonography,  I  was  accustomed  to  look  for  a  daily 
letter  from  Isaac,  and  though,  on  rare  occasions,  two  or  more 
days  might  pass  without  one,  when  the  diminutive  scrap  arrived, 
it  would  probably  be  found  to  contain  items  of  phonographic 


THE  INVENTOR'S  POVERTY.  177 

business  and  news,  dated  on  two,  three  or  more  consecutive 
days.  Isaac's  letters  were  very  unlike  ordinary  longhand  epis- 
tles, both  in  looks  and  expression.  They  were  always  written 
on  small  three  by  four  sheets  of  ruled  paper,  which  did  not  need 
folding  to  be  inclosed  in  an  envelope.  They  were  sometimes 
written  on  a  single  leaf,  but  oftener  they  filled  a  folded  sheet, 
and  small  as  they  were,  they  were  full  of  life  and  thought,  with- 
out any  waste  of  space  or  words,  and  expressed  in  interesting, 
confidential  chat,  mirroring  his  most  active  thoughts,  and  always 
picturing  the  impulse  of  the  moment, — features  which  the  slow- 
ness of  ordinary  longhand,  had  it  been  employed,  would  have 
been  likely  to  stiffen  and  modify. 

The  following  extracts,  which  might  easily  be  increased 
ten-fold,  date  from  1846  to  1852. 

"Tomorrow  evening  I  shall  be  in  great  distress  if  I  don't 
get  ^5  remittance  from  you.  I  had  to  raise  a  temporary  loan 
of  ^20  of  Mr.  Bush,  for  three  weeks,  last  Monday,  on  account 
of  a  small  paper  bill  which  fell  due." 

"Your  remittance,  received  yesterday,  was  so  serviceable, 
for  without  it  I  should  have  sent  home  two  workmen  unpaid. 
Not  only  was  I  short  to  this  extent  for  paying  the  office,  but  I 
had  to  borrow  ^15  of  Hoi  way,  for  four  days,  till  I  could  get  it 
from  Fred,  to  take  up  the  ^28  bill  of  his  just  due." 

Frederick  Pitman,  the  youngest  of  the  family,  was  the 
London  publisher.  London  is  the  distributing  center  of  litera- 
ture for  all  England.  The  books  and  magazines  printed  at  Bath 
were  all  sent  to  and  distributed  from  the  London  agency. 

"  Within  half  an  hour  after  I  returned  from  the  postoffice 
came  your  hearty,  cheering  letter  with  ^20.  I  felt  that  I  could 
have  jumped  over  the  moon  as  I  took  it  in  my  hands.  I  have 
a  heavy  paper  bill  due  on  the  2gth  of  this  month,  towards  which 
I  shall  want  a  great  deal  of  help  from  you.  There  is  also  £30 
the  4th  of  next  month,  for  Holway's  lithography;  but  I  know 
you  will  do  your  best  for  me,  only  I  want  you  to  know  my 
straits." 

"  I  was  going  to  forget  the  most  important  matter  of  all, 
namely,  that  I  want  some  cash  from  you  as  quickly  as  you  can 
get  it." 

"My  heavy  debt  of  ^ui,  to  be  provided  for  by  the  23d, 
hangs  upon  me  like  a  millstone.  I  may,  if  Fred  should  be  very 


i78          S/A>  fSAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

gracious,  get  from  him  ^,"30  or  ^40  towards  it,  for  I  have  offered 
him  a  handsome  bonus  in  addition  to  interest,  and  I  may 
collect  during  the  next  week,  through  my  offer  of  books  at  half 
price,  ^30  more,  but  I  fear  I  shall  not.  Do  spare  me  some- 
thing, my  brother  Benn,  and  I  will  raise  it  for  you, — for  I  am 
not  the  very  worst  hand  in  the  world  for  raising  the  wind 
[laughter], — before  you  leave  for  America." 

"If  you  have  not  already  dispatched  the  ^5,  please  send  it 
by  return  post,  for  I  have  only  half  a  crown  in  my  pocket,  and 
I  cannot  send  to  the  bank  because  I  have  already  overdrawn  as 
much  as  I  would  like  to  venture  upon." 

"  I  dismissed  Evans,  the  engraver,  on  Saturday,  because  I 
had  no  means  of  raising  the  money  to  pay  his  wages.  The  week 
before  last  I  had  to  leave  about  £3  office  wages  unpaid,  and  in 
order  to  pay  Evans  I  had  to  borrow  ,£5  to  make  the  sum  up." 

"  I  have  no  other  means  whatever  of  paying  my  men  this 
week,  but  by  your  sending  me  something  by  the  next  post. 
I  have  overdrawn  Fred  in  order  to  meet  the  paper  bill  of 
Tuesday,  and  can  get  nothing  from  him." 

"  I  have  this  moment  finished  reading  the  proofs  of  the 
Bible  [in  phonetic  print],  and  must  tell  you  how  thankful  I 
feel  that  I  have  been  enabled  to  bring  it  to  a  close.  I  had 
many  fears.  I  shall  now  reduce  my  weekly  expenses  by  two 
hands.  I  have,  however,  two  very  heavy  bills  falling  due,  one 
at  the  commencement  of  next  month,  ^139,  and  the  other  at 
the  beginning  of  April,  ^130.  If  I  weather  this  storm,  I  shall 
be  safe  and  easy  in  all  my  operations." 

"  I  have  not  £i  to  pay  my  office  tomorrow,  and  don't  know 
where  to  get  it.  I  have  drained  Fred,  it  seems,  to  the  last 
extremity.  I  owe  him  about  ^200,  which  I  have  overdrawn, 
and  I  pay  him  interest  for  it.  Blessings  on  this  new  Manual, 
which  will  set  me  straight  next  year.  If  I  hadn't  raised  the 
price  of  the  Manual  to  is  6d,  at  your  suggestion,  five  years  ago, 
I  would  do  it  now." 

This  reference  to  the  increased  price  of  the  Manual  recalls 
the  fact  that  a  few  years  after  the  first  cheap  edition  of  Phonog- 
raphy was  published,  the  system  was  elaborated  into  a  text- 
book, called  the  Manual,  with  numerous  examples  and  reading 
exercises  in  engraved  phongraphy,  and  sold  for  one  shilling. 
All  the  books  and  magazines  issued  by  my  brother  during  his 


THE  INVENTOR'S  POVERTY.  179 

long  career  were  published  at  very  moderate  prices,  considering 
the  cost  of  their  production.  The  instruction  books  abounded  in 
illustrations,  engraved  on  wood,  while  the  magazines  were  pro- 
duced, from  Isaac's  transfer  writing,  by  the  then  slow  and  costly 
lithographic  process.  The  income  from  the  sale  of  the  Manual 
was  my  brother's  main  reliance,  enabling  him  to  carry  on  his 
life's  work.  A  year  or  two  after  I  engaged  in  lecturing  and 
teaching,  I  urged  him  to  raise  the  price  of  the  Manual  to  one 
shilling  and  sixpence.  My  pleadings  were  continued  for  a  long 
time  before  he  yielded.  In  one  of  his  letters,  written  a  year  after, 
he  said:  "I  bless  you  for  your  persistence  in  this  matter."  At 
another  time,  in  reference  to  the  added  income  the  raised  price 
of  the  Manual  gave  him,  he  wrote:  "It  will  be  the  salvation 
of  the  reform." 

There  may  seem  to  be  a  sad  lack  of  romance  in  the  career 
of  Isaac  Pitman,  in  that  he  did  not  live  neglected  and  die  poor. 
Prophets  and  reformers  usually  do.  A  man  may  give  a  lucky 
name  to  a  pill,  or  invent  a  collar  button,  and  die  a  millionaire. 
Occasionally  an  inventor,  like  Edison,  Bell,  or  Isaac  Pitman, 
may  work  a  thought  into  a  practical  shape,  and  be  abundantly 
rewarded,  for  the  invention  may  supply  a  universal  need.  It 
would  accord  with  the  past  experience  of  prophets  and  reformers 
had  Isaac  Pitman  spent  his  life  in  perfecting  a  useful  art,  and 
a  reform  in  letters  of  signal  benefit  to  the  world,  and  be  paid 
by  his  generation  with  persecution  and  neglect.  Luckity  his 
invention  was  needed,  and  he  was,  in  the  end,  amply  rewarded 
for  his  genius  and  skill.  His  greater  and  more  important 
reform,  as  he  regarded  it,  the  great  educational  benefit  involved 
in  a  perfected  typic  alphabet,  and  a  reformed  orthography,  the 
world  is  not  prepared  to  accept,  and  will  accept  but  gradually  ; 
had  this  alone,  been  Isaac  Pitman's  life  work,  he  would,  in  all 
probability,  have  lived  and  died  in  struggling  poverty.  A  sadder 
romance,  however,  than  a  struggle  with  poverty,  closed  the 
career  of  my  brother.  It  came  not  from  the  lack,  but  from  the 
abundance  of  wealth;  not  from  a  cold,  unappreciative  world, 
but  from  those  near  him,  on  whom  he  had  heaped  abounding 
favors.  It  is  a  story  which,  for  many  reasons,  we  wish  might 
remain  untold;  but  this  would  be  a  grave  injustice  to  the 
memory  of  the  inventor  of  Phonography,  whose  latest  years 
were  devoted  to  the  sole  effort  to  rectify  what  he  regarded  as 


i8o          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

a  prime  mistake  in  his  effort  to  improve  his  art.  The  disregard 
of  his  ripest  experience,  the  systematic  thwarting  of  his  wishes 
to  rectify  his  own  error, — thus  completing  his  invention, — and 
depriving  him  of  all  rights  of  authorship,  by  those  to  whom  he 
had  generously  given  his  accumulated  fortune  and  dedicated  the 
furtherance  of  the  Phonetic  reform,  he  regarded  as  the  cruelest 
experience  of  his  life.  This  ungracious  closing  of  a  life  devoted 
to  "righting  the  wrong,"  is  reserved  for  our  last  chapter,  where 
the  story  is  told  in  my  brother's  own  words. 


A  VERY  interesting  and  original  attempt  at  alphabetic 
reform  was  made  in  England  in  1865-67  by  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Melville  Bell,  who  called  his  scheme  Visible 
Speech.  It  was  an  effort  to  provide  a  universal  alphabet  that 
should  be  self-interpreting,  in  that  the  forms  of  the  letters,  it 
was  claimed,  would  picture  their  sounds  by  indicating  the 
position  of  the  organs  of  speech  during  their  utterance. 
Attention  was  called  to  the  scheme  by  a  paper  read  by  the 
inventor  before  the  Society  of  Arts,  who,  after  showing  the 
urgent  necessity  for  a  more  philosophic  representation  of 
language  than  is  provided  by  the  Roman  alphabet,  and  its 
consequent  inconsistent  spelling,  claimed  that  a  scheme  of  visual 
representation  of  sounds  was  possible,  by  symbols  that  should 
not  be  arbitrary,  as  are  the  letters  of  the  Roman  alphabet,  but 
such  as  would  be  pictures  of  sound,  or,  at  least,  visual  indicators 
of  the  position  of  the  organs  of  speech  in  uttering  the  sounds, 
and  with  such  exactness  that  all  possible  shades  of  sounds,  for- 
eign and  dialectic,  would  be  accurately  represented.  Mr.  Bell  did 
not  give  his  auditors  any  indication  of  the  actual  symbols 
employed  in  his  new  scheme.  He  hoped  that  the  British  Gov- 
ernment would  recognize  the  importance  of  his  invention,  in 
which  case  he  would  give  it  to  the  public  on  condition  that  the 
Government  defrayed  the  cost  of  providing  types  for  the  new 
forms  of  his  alphabet,  and  circulate  his  system  for  the  general 
benefit. 

Isaac  Pitman  was,  of  course,  deeply  interested  in  Mr.  Bell's 
announced  invention,  and  reprinted   his  paper  in  the    Phonetic 

181 


1 82          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Journal.  He  offered  to  furnish  means  for  casting  type  for  the 
new  scheme, — little  anticipating  its  complexity, — and  offered 
the  pages  of  his  Journal  for  explanation  and  for  the  promul- 
gation of  it.  Mr.  Bell  declined  the  offer,  for  his  mind  was  set 
on  that  eclat  which  the  sanction  and  patronage  of  the  Govern- 
ment would  give  his  invention.  But  the  Government,  as  might 
be  expected,  was  as  deaf  to  his  appeal  as  had  it  been  made  to 
the  Sphinx. 

Mr.  Bell  had  given  several  interesting  semi-public  exhibi- 
tions in  London,  demonstrating  the  practicability  of  his  scheme 
in  correctly  indicating  the  sounds  of  speech,  in  which  he  was 
assisted  by  his  two  sons,  Edward  Charles  and  Alexander 
Graham  Bell,  the  latter  now  the  world-wide-known  inventor 
of  the  Bell  Telephone.  In  an  editorial  notice  of  Mr.  Bell's 
invention,  the  London  Atheneum  <5th  July,  1865)  gives  the 
following  account  of  one  those  exhibitions: 

"We  and  many  others  have  seen  this  method  tested  in 
the  following  way :  Mr.  Bell  sends  his  two  sons  out  of  the 
room,  and  then  invites  the  company  to  make  words  in  any 
language,  pronounced  rightly  or  wrongly,  and  sounds  of  any- 
kind,  no  matter  how  absurd  or  original,  for  it  is  the  success 
of  this  method  that  whatever  the  organs  of  speech  can  do,  the 
new  alphabet  can  record.  Mr.  Bell  tried  each  sound  himself, 
until  the  proposer  admits  that  he  has  got  it;  he  then  writes 
it  down.  After  a  score  of  such  attempts  had  been  recorded, 
the  young  gentlemen  are  recalled,  and  they  forthwith  read 
what  is  presented  to  them,  reproducing  to  a  nicety,  amidst 
general  laughter  and  astonishment,  all  the  queer  Babelisms 
which  a  grave  party  of  philologists  have  strained  their  muscles 
to  invent.  The  original  symbols,  when  read  sound  after  sound, 
would  make  a  Christian  fancy  himself  in  the  Zoological  Gar- 
dens." 

Mr.  Ellis  was  deeply  interested  in  Mr.  Bell's  scheme,  and 
after  attending  some  of  the  exhibitions,  publicly  recorded  his 
opinion  of  the  scientific  accuracy  of  representation  which  the 
new  scheme  provided. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  young  Alexander  Graham 
Bell's  phonetic  training,  and  assisting  in  his  father's  experi- 
ments, were  factors  that  led  to  his  invention  of  the  Telephone. 
How  marvelous  it  would  have  seemed,  when  these  experiments 


BELLS  VISIBLE  SPEECH.  183 

were  in  progress  in  London,  had  anyone  foretold  that  in  the 
near  future  one  person  would  utter  sounds,  or  converse  with 
another,  with  perfect  distinctness,  a  thousand  miles  away! 
Yet  today  there  are  many  merchants  in  Cincinnati  who  daily  use 
the  long-distance  telephone,  from  five  to  thirty  minutes,  discuss- 
ing business  affairs  with  merchants  in  New  York.  At  each  end 
of  the  line  there  is  a  phonographic  amanuensis  to  note  down 
all  that  is  said,  and  the  transcription  affords  a  perfect  record 
of  matters  that  might  require  many  days  of  correspondence 
to  settle. 

The  hoped-for  aid  from  the  Government  never  came,  and 
Mr.  Bell,  in  1867,  published,  in  a  beautifully  printed  and  expen- 
sive royal-octavo  volume,  his  scheme  of  Visible  Speech,  dedi- 
cating it,  in  loving  remembrance,  to  his  son,  Edward  Charles, 
who  assisted  in  the  phonetic  experiments. 

Those  who  favored  phonetic  reform,  but  had  never  experi- 
mented in  devising  new  typic  forms,  and  therefore  did  not 
know  the  difficulty — say,  rather,  the  impossibility — of  supplying 
the  deficiency  of  the  Roman  alphabet  with  new  symbols  that 
equal  the  old  letters  in  symmetry  and  beauty,  were  grievously 
disappointed  at  the  appearance  of  the  new  forms  that  Mr.  Bell 
had  chosen  for  the  representation  of  the  sounds  of  speech. 
He  had  to  invent  forty  new  forms,  and  those  who  had  helped 
Isaac  Pitman  in  the  invention  of  seventeen  new  and  unobjec- 
tionable letters  were  not  surprised  to  find  that  Mr.  Bell's 
scheme  stood  no  possible  chance  of  general  recognition,  what- 
ever might  be  its  scientific  merits.  A  printed  page  of  the 
forms  used  in  Visible  Speech  was  as  distressingly  ugly  and  as 
unwelcome  to  the  eye  as  Choctaw  would  be  to  the  ear  of  a 
cultured  Italian;  and  a  hundred  times  more  unlikely  to  be 
generally  accepted  by  the  English-speaking  world,  than  Isaac 
Pitman's  phonotypic  scheme,  in  which  only  seventeen  new 
letters  were  added  to  the  Roman  alphabet.  Mr.  Bell's  analysis 
of  sounds  was  unquestionably  more  complete  and  scientific 
than  any  that  preceded  it,  and  those  who  are  interested  to 
know  what  are  the  sounds  of  human  speech,  in  all  their  scientific 
minuteness  of  variation,  can  obtain  a  good  idea  by  reading,  or, 
we  would  rather  say,  attempting  to  read,  Dr.  A.  J.  Ellis'  article 
on  the  'Sounds  of  Speech',  in  volume  XXII  of  the  last  edition 
of  the  Encj'clopedia  Britannica,  page  381.  When  that  most 


1 84          SfX  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

wonderful  analysis  of  speech  is  intelligently  examined  the  reader 
will  form  a  tolerably  accurate  idea  of  the  difficulties  to  be 
encountered  in  devising  any  strictly  scientific  scheme  for  the 
representation  of  human  speech,  difficulties  which  will  remain 
insurmountable  obstacles,  until  the  world  is  more  civilized,  and 
its  ear  better  cultivated,  when  probably  we  shall  be  gradually 
rid  of  many  of  the  unpleasant  fricatives,  gutturals,  aspirates, 
and  nasals,  as  well  as  of  some  close  and  obscure  vowels  that 
now  offend  the  ear  when  listening  to  most  of  the  spoken  lan- 
guages of  the  world. 

Mr.  Bell  is  the  author  of  a  system  of  Phonetic  Shorthand 
which  is  more  phonetic  than  Phonography,  in  that  it  recognizes 
niceties  of  sound  that  experience  has  shown  to  be  unnecessary 
and  undesirable  to  represent  in  practical  writing.  As  a  steno- 
graphic system,  it  has  few  of  the  facile  abbreviations  and  time- 
saving  characteristics  of  Phonography,  and  though  he  was 
awarded  a  medal  for  his  invention  by  the  Royal  Scottish  Society 
of  Arts,  it  is  never  likely  to  be  practically  used,  or  regarded  as 
other  than  an  interesting  philosophic  experiment. 

The  Bells  were  a  distinguished  family  of  literary  elocu- 
tionists. The  father,  Alexander  Bell,  was  a  teacher  in  London, 
Alex.  Melville  Bell  was  a  teacher  in  Edinburgh,  and  David  E. 
Bell  was  a  teacher  in  Dublin.  After  the  death  of  the  father, 
Alex.  Melville  Bell  settled  in  London,  and  held  the  position  of 
lecturer  on  elocution  in  University  College.  David  E.  Bell,  the 
author  of  an  excellent  wrork  on  elocution,  was  my  teacher. 
Through  him  I  came  to  know  the  father  in  London,  and  I 
formed  a  high  opinion  of  his  literary  and  elocutionary  ability. 
I  remember  he  told  me  that  he  was  the  first  to  punctuate  "  Mil- 
ton's Paradise  Lost."  He  was  employed  by  the  London  pub- 
lisher, who  was  about  to  bring  out  a  fine  edition  of  the  work, 
and  my  recollection  is  that  he  said  he  was  paid  ^5  for  his  task, 
— the  sum  paid  Milton  for  writing  it. 

I  retain  a  vivid  remembrance  of  meeting  Mr.  Alex.  Melville 
Bell  before  leaving  England.  I  was  much  struck  with  the 
purity  and  charm  of  his  speech.  It  was  a  revelation  to  me. 
His  utterance  seemed  to  combine  the  easy,  graceful  intonation 
of  the  talk  of  a  cultured  actress,  with  the  strength  and  resonance 
that  should  characterize  the  speech  of  a  man,  and  though  finely 
modulated,  it  was  without  a  suggestion  of  affectation,  either  as 


BELLS  VISIBLE  SPEECH.  185 

to  matter  or  manner.  I  had  never  before,  and  I  do  not  know 
that  I  have  since,  heard  English  spoken  with  the  ease  and 
delicate  precision  that  so  distinctly  marked  the  speech  of 
Mr.  Bell. 

Prof.  Bell's  clean-cut  articulation,  his  flexibility  of  voice, 
and  finely  modulated  utterance  of  English,  was  but  an  exem- 
plification of  what  efficient  and  long-continued  training  of  the 
vocal  organs  will  do  for  human  speech — and  how  charming  the 
result !  All  are  aware  that  many  years  of  special  training, 
under  competent  teachers,  are  required  to  "make  a  singer,"  but 
few  seem  to  realize  that  Speech  is  as  much  an  art  as  song, 
and  is  equally  difficult  of  acquirement.  It  is,  however,  equally 
worthy  of  being  mastered.  The  professional  elocutionist  who 
tells  graduates  from  our  High  Schools  and  Colleges  that  they 
rarely  utter  a  sentence  that  does  not  abound  in  faults  of  pro- 
nunciation, articulation,  modulation,  and  tone,  receives  scant 
credit  for  his  criticism.  The  surprise  is  increased  if  he  insists 
that  not  only  are  the  unaccented  syllables  of  most  words  mis- 
pronounced or  slurred,  but  that  many  of  the  simplest  and  most 
frequently  recurring  words  of  the  language  (e.  g.  of,  to,  for,  that, 
it,  but,  as,  shall,  or,  can,  etc.)  are,  almost  always,  mispronounced. 
The  trained  ear  instantly  recognizes  the  hurried  slovenliness 
of  This'n  that,  for  "This  and  that;"  This'r  that,  for  "This  or 
that;"  Yoottn  do  it,  for  "You  can  do  it."  "You  shall  have  it," 
reaches  the  ear  as  YoosWl  have  it,  and  "This  is  for  your  friend," 
becomes  blurred  into  This  is  fur  yur  friend,  etc.,  etc.;  and 
such  imperfect  utterances  pass  current  for  our  beautiful  mother 
tongue!  It  is  scarcely  to  be  expected,  however,  that  correct 
speech — an  acknowledged  fundamental  branch  of  education — 
will  receive  the  attention  it  deserves,  till  the  exact  sounds  that 
should  reach  the  ear  are  pictured  to  the  eye. 


\ 


attempt  to 
reform  the 
English  sys- 
tem  of  numbers  as 
applied  to  money, 
weights,  and  measures 
was  made  by  Isaac 
Pitman  in  1857-62. 
To  the  average  Ameri- 
can, accustomed  to  the 
reasonable  and  simple 
decimal  system  of 
computation,  the 
pounds,  shillings, 
pence  and  farthings 
scheme  of  the  English 
people  appears  an  old- 
fashioned,  complex 
absurdity,  and  its  use 
in  the  business  affairs 
of  life  would  seem 
intolerable.  English 
people  might  retort 
and  say,  "If  the  deci- 
mal S)Tstem  is  so  supe- 
rior as  a  scale  for 
money  values,  why  not  apply  it  to  weights  and  measures? 
Happily  it  is  being  done,  for  the  Government,  recognizing  its 
desirability,  has  legalized  its  application  to  both  measures  and 
weights,  as  is  seen  by  its  employment  in  official  documents. 

My  brother's  attempted  reform  was  more  radical  than  the 
decimal  plan.  He  thought  a  change  to  the  duodecimal  system 
would  be  more  desirable,  believing  it  would  be  attended  with  less 
inconvenience  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain  than  would  be  the 
adoption  of  the  decimal  scheme.  He  sought  to  make  twelve, 
instead  of  ten,  the  basis  of  computation.  He  would  count  and 
compute  by  dozens  and  grosses,  instead  of  by  tens  and  hundreds, 
and  he  framed  a  scheme  of  nomenclature  for  weights  and  measures 
in  accord  with  the  duodecimal  unit.  The  duodecimal  scale  of 
reckoning  he  asserted  to  be  the  one  that  furnished  the  easiest 
and  most  natural  system  of  money,  weights  and  measures.  He 
believed  it  to  possess  all  the  advantages  of  the  decimal  system  of 

187 


188          SfR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

money,  as  it  could  be  adapted,  in  Great  Britain,  without  materially 
altering  the  value  of  the  British  coinage,  and  that  it  would  be 
better  to  alter  the  English  system  of  ciphering,  and  to  lay  a  more 
convenient  basis  for  arithmetical  operations,  than  it  would  be  to 
change  the  coinage  and  many  of  the  English  weights  and 
measures.  Twelve,  he  argued,  was  more  completely  divisible 
than  ten,  in  that  it  can  be  divided  by  2,  3,  4,  and  6  without 
fractions;  whereas  ten  can  only  be  divided  by  2  and  5  without 
fractional  parts.  Twelve  is  already  applied  to  feet  and  inches ; 
the  day  is  divided  into  two  parts,  each  of  twelve  hours,  and  we 
are  accustomed  to  count  articles  of  merchandise  in  dozens  and 
grosses.  We  cannot  divide  or  fold  a  sheet  of  printing  paper, 
for  a  book,  in  tens,  but  can  readily  do  so  in  twelves :  and  twelve 
is  already  a  divisor  as  applied  to  English  money,  in  that  four 
farthings  make  a  penny  and  twelve  pence  make  a  shilling. 
These  arguments  in  favor  of  a  duodecimal  scheme  would  be  of 
little  weight  in  inducing  Americans  to  abandon  their  convenient 
decimal  money  system,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this 
scheme  of  money  values  is  adopted  by  all  the  leading  nations  of 
Europe,  excepting  Great  Britain. 

I  distinctly  recall  my  first  experience  of  the  use  of  the 
decimal  system  of  money,  which  occurred  soon  after  my  landing 
in  this  country,  when  for  the  first  time  I  cast  up  a  column  of 
figures,  representing  the  month's  family  expenses,  and  expressed, 
of  course,  in  American  cents.  On  finding  that  the  simple  cast- 
ing up  of  a  column  of  figures  showed  the  sum  total,  without 
further  ado,  I  experienced  a  pleasurable  sense  of  relief  and  sur- 
prise. Had  the  monthly  expenditure  been  expressed  in  English 
money  values,  placed  in  triple  column,  the  farthings,  after  being 
added,  would  have  to  be  divided  by  four  to  make  pennies ;  the 
pence  column,  when  cast  up,  would  be  divided  by  twelve  to 
make  shillings,  and  the  shilling  column,  separately  cast  up, 
would  be  divided  by  twenty  to  make  pounds.  The  release  from 
the  time-wasting  intricacy  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed 
seemed  akin  to  what  walking  over  a  smooth  pavement  would 
be  after  having  been  compelled  for  years  to  travel  over  cobble 
stones,  and  I  could  not  feel  other  than  pleased  and  grateful  for 
a  scheme  at  once  so  simple  and  reasonable. 

Isaac  Pitman's  duodecimal  system  required  two  new  figures 
for  10  and  n,  and  after  many  experiments  he  selected  Z  for  10 


DECIMAL   VS.  DUODECIMAL.  189 

and  £  for  n,  and  had  punches  cut,  matrices  made,  and  type  cast 
for  Minion,  Brevier,  Bourgeois,  and  Small  Pica  fonts.  He  advo- 
cated the  adoption  of  the  scheme  in  the  Phonetic  Journal,  which 
was  paged  in  accordance  with  this  scheme.  He  kept  his  private 
accounts;  and  the  account  of  the  Phonetic  Journal  Fund,  given 
in  the  pages  of  the  Phonetic  Journal,  were  in  accord  with  the 
new  method.  He  seemed  for  years  almost  as  hopeful  of  the 
adoption  of  the  duodecimal  scheme  as  of  the  success  of  the 
Writing  and  Spelling  reform ;  and  of  its  ultimate  general  accept- 
ance and  use,  he  entertained  no  doubt.  The  "  three  R's,  read- 
ing, riting,  and  reckoning,"  he  urged,  would  then  become  so  easy 
and  natural  that  their  acquisition  would  indeed  "come  by 
nature." 

I  do  not  think  many  converts  were  made ;  if  so,  I  never 
heard  of  them.  My  brother's  best  friends  generally  thought 
that  the  advocacy  of  the  decimal  system  would  have  been 
a  more  judicious  effort,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  con- 
siderable attention  had  been  given  to  the  subject  in  England 
about  that  time,  and  a  committee  of  the  British  Parliament, 
after  a  patient  consideration  of  several  schemes,  all  based  on 
a  decimal  division  of  money  values,  had  actually  recommended 
an  initial  step  by  taking  the  English  sovereign,  or  pound  ster- 
ling,— originally  a  pound  of  sterling  silver, — as  a  unit  of  value, 
and  to  divide  the  sovereign  into  ten  florins,  the  florin  into 
ten  cents,  and  the  cent  into  ten  mills.  A  new  coin  called  the 
Florin,  equal  to  two  English  shillings,  was  designed  and  minted 
under  the  superintendence  of  Prince  Albert,  who  showed  his 
good  taste  in  giving  the  English  people  their  first  artistically 
modeled  coin.  To  provide  a  coin  representing  a  cent,  equal 
to  two  pence  and  a  half  of  English  money,  presented  a  difficulty. 
In  silver  it  would  be  too  small,  in  copper  too  large.  The 
English  penny  of  the  period  was  a  copper,  or  rather  bronze 
coin,  as  large  and  heavy  as  the  American  silver  dollar.  Nickel 
for  coinage  was  then  unknown.  Though  this  metal  had  been 
discovered  nearly  a  century  before,  it  was  not  obtainable  in 
sufficient  quantity  for  coinage  till  about  twenty  years  ago. 
The  '  nickel '  is  probably  the  most  used  of  any  American  coin, 
for  no  other  is  so  interwoven  with  the  daily  necessities  of  life. 
Nickel  bronze  is  admirably  suited  for  coinage.  Pure  nickel 
does  not  tarnish  by  exposure  any  more  than  gold,  and  as  an 


1 90          S/X  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

alloy,  the  American  coin  being  three  parts  of  copper  and  one 
of  nickel,  it  makes  a  thoroughly  convenient  and  unobjectionable 
coin,  besides  being  profitable  to  the  Government,  for  twelve 
nickels  can  be  minted  for  the  face  value  of  one. 

After  five  or  six  years  Isaac  Pitman  ceased  the  advocacy 
of  the  duodecimal  system.  His  efforts  to  perfect  Phonography, 
the  preparation  of  new  phonographic  books,  his  weekly  Phonetic 
Journal,  monthly  Phonographic  magazines,  correspondence,  and 
the  furthering  of  the  interests  of  the  Spelling  Reform,  required 
all  his  time  and  energies,  and  he  appeared  willing  to  leave  his 
superior  scheme  of  numbers  to  be  resurrected  by  some  future 
generation,  if  an  improvement  on  the  English  system  should 
be  generally  demanded. 

My  brother,  however,  never  abandoned  his  conviction  that 
the  duodecimal  system  was  the  one  most  worthy  of  adoption 
by  the  English  people.  In  July,  1896,  only  a  few7  months 
before  his  death,  he  says  in  the  Speller:  "Reading  and  writing 
by  sound,  and  reckoning  and  writing  by  dozens  instead  of  by 
tens;  then  elementary  education  will  become  'child's  play.' 
My  hope  for  the  reckoning  reform,  counting  by  dozens  instead 
of  tens,  has  been  quickened  in  the  past  month  by  Herbert 
Spencer's  letters  on  it  in  the  London  Times.  I  formulated 
the  reckoning  reform,  on  the  basis  of  twelve,  forty  years  ago ; 
used  it  for  three  or  four  years,  advocated  it  in  my  Phonetic 
Journal,  kept  my  accounts  in  it,  and  paged  the  Journal  in  it. 
The  phonetic  alphabet  was  then  on  the  anvil,  and  as  I  could 
not  do  justice  to  both  reforms,  I  let  the  reckoning  reform 
slide.  A  goodly  portion  of  the  brain  of  the  English  Nation 
has  now  taken  it  up,  and  I  hope  we  shall  hear  no  more  of 
changing  our  money,  weights,  and  measures,  which  are  mostly 
on  the  twelve  basis;  but  instead  of  intolerable  confusion  of 
altering  the  value  and  name  of  every  coin,  weight,  and  measure, 
we  shall  merely  change  our  mode  of  writing  them,  and  intro- 
duce a  few  new  coins,  measures,  and  weights  on  the  present 
basis  of  values,  and  give  them  Saxon  names." 


FOR  nearly  thirty  years  my  brother's  life  was  a  struggle 
with  poverty  and  limited  means.  As  long  as  he  con- 
tinued his  costly  Phonotypic  experiments  he  was  kept 
poor.  The  income  derived  from  the  sale  of  his  Phonographic 
works  and  a  great  deal  which  he  borrowed,  besides  liberal 
subscriptions  from  friends  of  the  Phonetic  Reform,  went  to 
pay  for  new  phonotypic  punches,  matrices,  types,  and  for  the 
paper  and  printing  of  books  for  which  there  was  but  little 
sale,  and  a  great  portion  of  which  were  gratuitously  supplied 
to  teachers  who  were  willing  to  experiment  with  them.  A  sum 
exceeding  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  was  expended  on  these 
phonotypic  experiments  from  1843  to  1859,  exclusive  of  forty 
thousand  dollars  generously  invested  by  Dr.  A.  J.  Ellis.  When 
this  outlay  ceased,  as  it  did  when  my  brother  became  con- 
vinced that  his  extended  alphabet  would  not  be  accepted  in 
his  day,  and  that  the  first  and,  indeed,  the  only  Typic  reform 
possible  must  be  a  phonetic  use  of  the  letters  of  the  Roman 
alphabet — that  is,  a  gradually  Amended  Spelling — then  Phonog- 
raphy, secured  as  it  was  by  copyright,  began  to  yield  its  author 
an  ample  revenue.  But  he  continued  his  untiring  labors,  and, 
almost  for  the  first  time  in  his  active  life,  he  allowed  his 
thoughts  to  be  diverted  for  a  time  to  home  affairs.  He  bought 
land  and  built  a  fitting  home  for  his  family  in  a  suburb  of  Bath.* 
After  two  or  three  times  enlarging  his  business  premises,  he 
took  his  two  sons  into  partnership,  bought  land,  and  an  entirely 
new  printing  establishment  was  built,  and  presses  and  machinery 
of  the  most  improved  kind  were  purchased  for  his  now 

*A  miniature  view  of  his  first  house,  of  dressed  "Bath  stone,"  is  shown  in  the  illus- 
tration heading  Chapter  22. 


i92          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

extended  business.  But  wealth  to  him  was  without  its  usual 
significance.  It  came  unthought  of,  unsought  for,  and,  as  it 
proved  in  the  end,  uncared  for.  About  seven  years  before  his 
death,  he  was  induced,  at  the  solicitation  of  his  wife  and  his 
two  sons,  to  make  over  to  them  his  entire  business,  buildings, 
presses,  machinery,  stock  of  books,  printing  material,  his  weekly 
Phonetic  Journal,  and  afterwards,  to  his  Junior  partners,  the 
copyright  of  all  his  works,  which  secures  the  exclusive  right 
to  publish  during  the  author's  life  and  for  seven  years  after 
his  death.  He  was  allowed  an  income  which  was  thought 
sufficient  for  his  limited  needs,  though  after-events  and  his 
letters  show  that  he  was  doomed,  at  an  advanced  age,  to  feel 
again  the  sting  of  debt  and  suffer  from  the  restrictive  bitter- 
ness of  straightened  means. 

The  first  intimation  I  received  of  this  strange  affair  was 
communicated  to  me  by  Isaac's  most  intimate  and  long-trusted 
friend,  Mr.  John  Bragg,  of  Birmingham,  my  brother-in-law,  who, 
under  date  of  iyth  February,  1891,  wrote:  "Last  autumn  I  was 
in  Bath  and  saw  a  good  deal  of  Isaac.  I  fear  his  too-easy 
nature  has  suffered  the  younger  ones  to  nearly  strip  him  of 
his  hard-earned  estate.  From  his  own  lips  I  heard  enough 
to  show  me  that  he  had  given  up  to  them  and  his  wife  by 
legal  deed  nearly  everything  of  future  income,  reserving  only 
such  a  modest  share  as  was  shown  by  them  would  be  'quite 
sufficient  for  his  wants.'  .  .  .  Other  people  who  knowr  more 
about  it  are  savage  over  it.  The  family  intended  to  prevent 
him  giving,  as  he  wishes,  to  the  church  or  other  uses,  and 
they  have  succeeded,  I  fear.  .  .  .  Some  of  his  relatives  will 
feel  the  deprivation,  and  do  so  now.  .  .  .  Meantime,  Isaac  goes 
on  working  as  hard  as  ever." 

This  disposition  of  my  brother's  publishing  business, 
copyright,  and  estate,  revealed  an  unhappy  and  unlooked-for 
state  of  affairs,  being  wholly  contrary  to  his  often  expressed 
intentions  and  repeated  assurances  in  his  letters  to  me.  The 
unavoidable  inference  was  that  my  brother  had  yielded  to  influ- 
ences he  could  not  escape.  He  sought  to  purchase  peace ; 
but  it  came  not.  The  fruits  of  the  transference  of  his  property 
and  rights  were  not  long  in  manifesting  themselves.  Sir 
Isaac  was  soon  made  to  feel  that  he  was  not  desired  at  the 
Institute,  and  he  therefore  consented  to  work  at  home,  but  the 


HIS  LAST  A  TTEMPT  A  T  JMPRO  VEMENT.  1 93 

sons  continued  to  hand  over  to  him  all  the  correspondence 
requiring  knowledge  and  thought.  Notwithstanding  that  by  the 
deed  of  transference  he  had  reserved  the  right  of  the  general 
direction  of  the  affairs  at  the  Institute,  he  found  that  those 
who  handled  the  funds  and  paid  the  wages  were  the  only 
ones  whose  orders  were  obeyed,  and  Sir  Isaac's  wishes  and 
orders  were  henceforth  systematically  disregarded.  The  fol- 
lowing is  one  of  many  instances  which  might  be  given.  He 
wished  to  publish  in  phonetic  print  a  portion  of  Mrs.  Barbauld's 
"Evenings  at  Home,"  for  which  Miss  Rosie  Pitman,  my  brother 
Henry's  artistic  daughter,  had  made  original  illustrations. 
Under  date  of  yth  July,  1893,  Isaac  wrote,  "I  ordered  the  fore- 
man at  the  Institute  to  get  the  three  books  made  up  from 
'Evenings  at  Home'  and  put  to  press  three  weeks  ago,  and 
have  heard  nothing  about  it  since.  Neither  of  my  sons 
cares  a  fig  about  the  Spelling  Reform,  and  as  the  Institute  is 
a  mile  away  from  me,  I  cannot  work  at  it  as  I  did  when  I 
went  there  ever)'  day.  I  have  so  much  work  in  the  way  of 
correspondence  that  it  has  been  impossible  hitherto  for  me  to 
lithograph  the  first  number  of  the  Phonographer  [devoted  to 
the  'Improvements'  under  discussion].  I  will,  however,  again 
urge  the  forwarding  of  these  Phonetic  Readers."  Probably  he 
did,  but  no  regard  seems  to  have  been  paid  to  his  wishes,  for 
nothing  resulted,  and  the  beautiful  illustrations  were  unused. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  transference  of  the  usufruct  of 
Isaac  Pitman's  life's  labors,  together  with  the  literary  and 
business  accumulations  of  more  than  half  a  century,  that  cer- 
tain improvements  in  Phonography  presented  themselves  to 
the  inventor's  mind  as  necessary  to  the  completion  of  the  sys- 
tem. Much  thought,  innumerable  experiments,  and  extensive 
correspondence  with  teachers  of  the  art,  had  convinced  him 
that  the  alteration  he  had  incorporated  in  the  English  text- 
books of  '62,  and  in  accord  with  which  a  whole  generation 
of  phonographers  had  been  instructed,  was  a  great  mistake, 
and  the  so-called  "improvements"  he  now  sought  to  introduce 
were,  in  fact,  the  undoing  of  the  change  of  '62,  and  a  return  to 
the  system  as  it  previously  existed. 

The  determination  of  the  author  to  complete  his  system 
gave  rise  to  an  unlooked-for  crisis.  Isaac  Pitman,  it  is  true, 
had  invented  and  nearly  perfected  his  system  of  brief  writing ; 


i94          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

its  development  had  required  the  unceasing  activities  of  more 
than  sixty  years ;  it  had  been  welcomed  as  a  much-needed 
art  throughout  the  English  speaking  world ;  it  had  brought 
honor  and  wealth  to  the  inventor,  and  his  unquestioned 
leadership,  it  might  be  supposed,  included  his  right  to  improve 
his  system  in  accord  with  his  long  and  varied  experience. 
But  now,  when  he  wished  to  give  the  finishing  touch  to  his 
beloved  art,  and  employ  the  necessary  agencies  to  carry  his 
views  into  effect,  he  found  himself  beset  with  most  untoward 
obstacles.  The  elder  son  antagonized  Sir  Isaac  at  every  point, 
and  the  younger  son,  wholly  under  the  influence  of  his  elder 
brother,  joined  in  thwarting  his  father's  cherished  wishes. 

To  American  phonographers  and  to  the  majority  of  the 
older  and  more  experienced  English  writers  of  the  system,  the 
changes  of  '62  seemed  unwise  and  undesirable,  and  in  America 
they  were  not  adopted.  The  attempt  of  the  author  now  to  undo 
a  "not-sufficiently-considered"  change,  and  to  remove  what  he 
termed  "a  blot  upon  the  system,"  proved  the  one  serious  trouble 
of  his  life.  It  shortened  and  embittered  his  latter  days,  and  there 
is  probably  not  to  be  found  in  the  annals  of  literature  a  more 
pathetic  episode  than  that  recited  by  my  brother  of  his  inef- 
fectual attempts  to  remedy  a  former  mistake,  which  he  now 
believed  would  restore  his  system  to  an  ideal  completeness, 
and  make  it  coincide  with  what  had  been  found  so  admirable 
and  satisfactory  to  American  phonographers. 

The  author's  two  sons  determinedly  opposed  their  father's 
views.  The  proposed  changes  could  not  b"e  introduced  into 
the  publishing  system  without  being  first  submitted  to  the 
phonographic  world;  this  it  was  thought  would  give  rise  to 
endless  discussion,  and  the  introduction  of  the  changes  into 
the  Text  Books  and  other  publications  would  be  attended  with 
considerable  trouble  and  expense.  These  were  considerations  of 
less  than  a  feather's  weight  to  the  inventor,  when  set  against 
an  admitted  improvement  of  the  system ;  but  to  the  Junior 
partners,  who  had  never  done  anything,  either  to  improve  or 
spread  the  art,  and  whose  views  of  Phonography  were  purely 
commercial,  they  appeared  so  formidable  that  they  resolved 
if  possible  to  avoid  the  issue. 

Sir  Isaac's  presence  at  the  Phonetic  Institute  was  now  no 
longer  desired.  He  was  denied  any  of  the  facilities  of  his 


HIS  LAST  A  TTEMPT  A  T  IMPRO  VEMENT.  1 95 

printing  establishment,  and  found  himself  unable  to  control  a 
line  of  explanation  or  comment  in  the  weekly  Phonetic  Jour- 
nal, which  he  had  established  and  conducted  for  fifty  years. 
The  inventor  had  improved  his  system,  but  he  could  not  revise 
his  books  ;  he  had  a  message  of  interest  to  deliver  to  his 
thousands  of  adherents,  but  he  was  forbidden  to  speak  through 
the  only  organ  that  would  reach  the  phonographic  world. 
The  improvements  which  had  been  thoroughly  discussed  and 
approved  by  leading  phonographers  during  three  years'  corre- 
spondence, he  now  wished  to  present  to  the  great  body  of 
writers  of  his  system  for  their  approval  or  rejection ;  but  the 
facilities  of  his  office,  which  had  grown  large  and  efficient  by 
more  than  half  a  century  of  his  personal  labor,  were  closed  to 
him.  The  new  conditions,  however,  were  quietly  but  decisively 
met.  In  his  eighty-second  year,  the  venerable  author  opened 
a  new  printing  office !  To  a  conscience  as  sensitive  as  my 
brother's,  and  to  energies  as  limitless  as  his,  conviction  made 
action  a  necessity.  Denied  the  use  of  his  own  Journal,  he 
established  a  new  one.  He  printed  and  scattered  tens  of 
thousands  of  explanatory  documents,  and  opened  an  extensive 
correspondence  with  teachers  the  land  over ;  his  chief  concern 
being  not  so  much  to  change  the  individual  practise  of  phonog- 
ra'phers,  as  to  improve  and  simplify  the  art  for  the  benefit  of 
countless  thousands  who  should  hereafter  learn  and  practise  it. 
The  story  of  the  author's  attempt  to  introduce  his  improve- 
ments and  embody  them  in  the  Text  Books  is  told  in  the 
twenty-five  monthly  numbers  of  his  Speller,  beginning  January, 
1895.  He  calls  it  a  battle,  and  a  pathetic  and  tragic  interest 
attends  the  narration  of  a  contest,  bravely  and  perseveringly 
continued,  and  as  unceasingly  thwarted  by  his  sons,  till  the 
day  he  died.  Hundreds  of  approving  and  encouraging  letters 
are  given  month  after  month  in  the  Speller.  Among  other 
leading  phonographers,  Mr.  T.  A.  Reed,  who  stood  in  the  front 
rank,  strongly  indorsed  the  improvements  and  urged  their 
general  acceptance.  He  writes,  "They  are  but  a  return  to 
a  safe,  convenient  practise  which  I  never  abandoned."  He 
adds:  "  I  do  not  wish  to  enter  upon  a  question  of  the  painful 
family  feud  to  which  this  matter  has  given  rise.  It  grieves 
me  not  a  little.  Sir  Isaac  Pitman  has  parted  with  his  copy- 
right and  all  interests  in  the  phonographic  business  to  his  sons. 


196          SfR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

Probably  if  he  had  foreseen  how  he  would  be  handicapped  by 
such  an  arrangement,  and  be  deprived  of  the  control  of  the 
development  of  his  own  system,  he  would  have  hesitated  before 
resigning  his  position  at  the  helm." 

The  Speller  for  November,  1895,  contains,  among  numer- 
ous approving  letters,  an  interesting  communication  from  Dr. 
Walsh,  the  Roman  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  highly 
approving  the  proposed  changes.  He  writes :  "I  beg  to  con- 
gratulate you  on  the  success  that  has  at  length  begun  to 
reward  your  patient  efforts  to  secure  the  general  acceptance 
of  the  great  reform  in  Phonography,  for  which  you  have  been 
laboring  so  perseveringly,  and  in  the  face  of  harassing  obstruc- 
tions, for  the  last  three  years.  The  October  number  of  the 
Speller  gives  abundant  evidence  of  how  notable  the  advance 
is  that  has  been  made.  The  reform  which  you  are  so  heroic- 
ally struggling  to  get  introduced  into  the  Text  Books  aims 
primarily  at  the  removal  of  what  is,  undoubtedly,  a  most  serious 
defect  in  the  system,  as  we  have  it  in  the  Text  Books — an 
insuperable  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  the  learner."  The 
venerable  Archbishop  thus  closed  his  letter: 

"Allow  me  to  add  that  I  write  this  letter  in  the  spirit  of 
the  closing  words  of  Mr.  Thomas  Allen  Reed's  admirable  letter 
in  the  October  Speller.  '  Everyone  who  wishes  well  to  Pho- 
nography should  throw  the  weight  of  his  influence,  however 
slight  it  may  be,  into  the  scale,  and  protest  against  the  Inventor 
having  his  closing  years  clouded  by  the  reflection  that  he  is 
not  allowed  to  present  the  product  of  his  brain,  and  the  object 
of  his  solicitude  in  what  he  conceives  to  be  its  best  (because 
most  useful)  form.'  ' 

The  Speller,  during  the  two  years  of  its  existence,  con- 
tained extracts  from  hundreds  of  letters,  mainly  from  teachers, 
expressive  of  approval  and  hopes  that  the  improvement  would 
at  once  be  incorporated  into  the  text  books.  Yet  month  after 
month  the  aged  inventor  while  writing  words  of  encourage- 
ment to  those  who  approved  of  the  changes,  speaks  of  the 
hindrances  the  firm  put  in  the  way  of  their  adoption,  and  of 
their  continued  efforts  to  keep  from  the  great  body  of  phonog- 
raphers  all  knowledge  of  the  improvements  the  author  had 
made  in  the  Phonographic  system.  The  Speller  for  October, 
1896,  contains,  in  addition  to  a  series  of  letters  welcoming  the 


HIS  LAST  A TTEMP T  AT  IMPRO VEMENT.  1 9; 


THE  PHONETIC   INSTITUTE  AT  BATH. 

improvements,  a  numerously  signed  appeal  from  teachers  to 
the  firm  urging  that  a  supply  of  books  containing  the  improve- 
ments should  be  prepared  for  the  approaching  winter  classes. 
The  appeal  concludes,  "  Hundreds  of  teachers  and  thousands 
of  pupils  now  write  the  New  Style,  and  it  is  due  to  their 
conviction  of  its  advantages  that  the  teaching  books  should 
contain  them,  at  least  so  far  as  to  give  them  as  an  alternative." 
Isaac  Pitman  states  that  he  forwarded  this  appeal  to  the  firm 
asking  the  favor  of  a  reply  on  or  before  the  loth  of  Septem- 
ber, and  adds,  "On  the  nth  of  September  I  was  taken  ill,  and 
I  have  been  confined  to  my  bed  till  today,  2nd  of  October. 
Thus  extra  time  has  been  given  to  the  firm  to  consider  their 
reply  to  the  teachers'  simple  request.  It  is  an  emphatic  'No.' 
Any  further  reference  of  this  subject  to  the  publishing  firm 
is  unnecessary."  This  was  only  a  few  months  before  he  died. 
"These  improvements,"  writes  Sir  Isaac,  "have  been  elaborated 
by  infinite  thought,  consultation,  and  practise,  since  March, 
1892  .  .  .  The  amount  of  change  in  the  writing  of  Phonog- 
raphy caused  by  the  improvements  is  very  small  indeed,  but 
the  effect  in  simplifying  the  system,  and  the  advantage  to  both 
teacher  and  pupil,  is  great,  making  the  art  easier  for  the  learner, 
shorter  for  the  writer,  and  more  legible  and  symmetrical." 

It  seems  incredible  to  American  phonographers  who  have 
always  written  in  accord  with  the  suggested  "improvements," 
that  their  recommendation  should  have  given  rise  to  any  con- 
troversy, much  less  any  determined  opposition ;  and  it  is 
apparent  throughout  the  author's  recital  of  the  Firm's  refusal 
fairly  to  consider  the  results  of  their  father's  thought,  time, 


198          S/tf  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

skill,  and  patience,  that  he  is  chiefly  moved  and  incensed  by 
what  he  terms  "the  sluggishness  that  refuses  to  test  the  pro- 
posals, and  the  indolence  that  will  not  even  look  at  them." 

The  approaching  end  of  an  heroic  career  is  dimly  fore- 
shadowed in  the  November  number  of  the  Speller.  The  author 
quotes  from  the  letter  of  an  old  friend  and  teacher,  "  Most 
earnestly  do  I  trust  that  your  valuable  life  may  be  long  spared, 
and  that  its  close  may  not  be  disturbed  by  annoyances  and 
dispute  in  connection  with  the  great  work  which  is  due  to 
your  untiring  energy  and  genius."  Sir  Isaac  adds :  "  The 
congratulations  I  receive  on  my  'recovery'  lead  me  to  think 
that  phonographers,  who  all  regard  me  with  paternal  affection, 
would  be  interested  in  knowing  how  I  am,  and  what  brought 
me  down.  I  am  recovering,  but  not  recovered.  This  is  my 
seventh  week  of  confinement.  I  am  as  weak  as  a  baby,  except 
in  my  head,  in  the  power  to  guide  my  limbs  consciously,  and 
in  possessing  a  sound  bodily  constitution.  I  am  greatly  dis- 
tressed, but  without  pain,  by  shortness  of  breath,  especially 
after  the  slightest  exertion,  such  as  eating,  getting  up  from  my 
chair  to  reach  a  book  from  the  bookcase,  and  sitting  down 
again.  I  then  pant  for  five  minutes  and  cannot  write  until 
the  heart-throbs  are  equalized.  The  mitral  valve  of  the  heart 
does  not  fulfill  its  duty  and  allows  the  blood  to  leak  back, 
and  thus  the  contraction  of  the  lungs  has  to  force  out  this  por- 
tion of  the  blood  twice.  The  cause  of  my  illness  must  be 
traced  back  to  March,  1892.  I  then  commenced  a  series  of 
experiments  and  correspondence  with  the  best  phonographers 
with  reference  to  the  improvements.  Denied  access  to  my 
own  Journal  for  the  interchange  of  ideas  with  the  best  writers, 
I  was  thrown  back  on  my  pen  and  the  postoffice,  and  for  four 
years  and  a  half  spent  the  whole  day  writing  to  phonographers 
and  pressing  my  correspondents,  especially  teachers,  to  try  the 
New  Style,  so  advantageous  to  learners.  On  the  nth  of  Sep- 
tember I  took  to  my  bed.  On  Sunday,  4th  of  October,  my 
nurse  dressed  me.  From  that  time  I  have  been  gradually 
but  slowly  recovering.  Without  Shorthand  I  could  not  have 
carried  on  my  business  during  these  seven  weeks.  I  am  able 
to  keep  on  the  Speller,  but  can  no  more  correspond  with 
phonographers.  I  have  only  strength  enough  to  write  two 
or  three  lines,  and  then  sit  up  and  rest.  In  this  slow  work 


HfS  LAST  A  TTEMPT  A  T  IMPRO  VEMENT.  199 

I  occupy   about   four   hours  a  day.      Occasionally,  for  a  day,  I 
am  too  weak  to  read  or  write." 

The  December  Speller  contains  many  additional  letters  of 
encouragement  and  approval,  and  has  the  following  significant 
words  from  this  sadly  worn  but  unyielding  leader :  "I  regret 
that  I  am  unable  to  report  favorably  of  my  health,  i4th  of 
November.  Since  the  last  bulletin,  3oth  of  October,  my  strength 
has  not  increased,  and  my  breathing  has  become  more  difficult. 
On  Monday  I  dictated  a  portion  of  the  Index  of  this  volume 
to  my  clerk,  and  finished  it  on  Tuesday.  The  effect  of  this 
slight  exercise  of  the  lungs  was  that  on  Wednesday  I  was 
too  weak  to  be  dressed."  Not  one  of  the  "seventy  assistants" 
of  his  Phonetic  Institute  could  be  spared  to  relieve  the  vener- 
able Father  of  Phonography,  in  his  great  debility,  from  this 
clerical  drudgery.  After  the  preparation  of  "copy"  for  the 
December,  1896,  Speller,  Sir  Isaac,  evidently  feeling  that  his 
diminished  strength  would  not  enable  him  to  continue  its 
publication,  wrote  and  sent  a  brief  notice  for  insertion  in  the 
Phonetic  Journal  of  5th  of  December:  "I  shall  be  obliged  if 
you  will  inform  the  subscribers  to  my  monthly  periodical, 
The  Speller,  that  with  the  December  number,  now  ready,  the 
work  will  cease  as  a  Monthly,  and  will  appear  occasionally,  as 
I  have  strength  to  bring  it  out."  (Signed)  Isaac  Pitman. 
The  notice  was  not  inserted. 

To  keep  faith  with  his  friends  and  followers  of  the  New 
Style,  and  to  avoid  disappointing  them,  Sir  Isaac  braces  up  his 
declining  energies  and  prepares  copy  for  a  new  number.  The 
January  Speller  appears,  and  it  is  the  last.  Commenting  on  the 
non-appearance  of  the  notice  in  the  Phonetic  Journal,  Sir  Isaac 
says :  "I  have  been  quietly  dropped  from  a  share  in  its  man- 
agement .  .  .  My  notice  was  received  by  the  firm  with  appar- 
ent approval,  and  the  reply  [sent  by  the  younger  son]  was,  'It 
is  all  right.'  I  interpreted  this  to  signify  that  the  letter  would 
be  inserted.  Great  was  my  disappointment,  on  receiving  a 
copy  of  the  Journal,  to  find  that  it  was  not  inserted.  This 
means  a  continuance  of  the  war  of  the  two  styles.  For  two 
years  the  firm  has  persistently  suppressed  the  mention  of  the  fact 
in  its  Journal  that  there  is  a  Monthly  publication  called  The 
Speller;  and  especially  have  they,  for  nearly  five  years,  pre- 
vented the  vast  body  of  phonographers  from  knowing  that 


200          SIR  ISAAC  PITMAN'S  LIFE  AND  LABORS. 

a  great  improvement  has  been  made  in  the  system,  simplify- 
ing it,  and  reducing  the  labor  of  learning  and  teaching  it  about 
one-half.  The  Speller  was  established  to  advocate  this  great 
improvement  in  Phonography.  Every  obstacle  was  raised  to 
its  publication.  I  have  carried  on  the  battle  against  my  part- 
ners for  nearly  six  years,  and  now  devolve  it  on  the  large 
body  of  progressive  phonographers.  Since  March,  1892,  neither 
of  the  Junior  members  of  the  firm  of  'Sir  Isaac  Pitman  and 
Sons'  has  spoken  to  me — the  head  of  the  firm— on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  'Improvements.'*  They  say  'it  is  not  a  subject 
of  discussion,'  which,  I  suppose,  means  that  they  will  continue 
printing  the  present  big  hooks  and  the  double  forms  of  fr,  vr, 
t/ir,  dhr,  etc.  It  is  for  phonographic  teachers  to  say  they  will 
not  teach  these  principles,  but  cross  them  out  in  the  Instruc- 
tion Books."  To  a  teacher  who  writes,  "  I  trust  you  will  have 
your  way  eventually,"  Sir  Isaac  adds,  "I  shall  work  at  it  till 
I  get  it.  The  Speller  will  be  carried  on  till  the  improvements 
appear  in  the  Instruction  Books,  if  I  live  so  long.  And  if  I 
leave  this  world  before  that  time,  everyone  who  learns  the 
system,  and  is  a  New  Style  writer,  will  prefer  it  to  the  Old 
Style,  write  it,  disseminate  it,  and  fight  for  it."  These  striking 
prophetic  words  in  reference  to  his  cherished  hopes  appear  on 
the  last  page  of  the  last  number  of  The  Speller,  and  were  dic- 
tated the  day  before  he  died. 

Two  years  before,  my  brother  gave  promise  of  a  life  of  a 
hundred  years.  But  opening  a  printing  office  at  his  advanced 
age,  establishing  The  Speller, — the  only  means  left  him  to  bring 
his  improvements  before  the  phonographic  world — and  the 
strain  necessarily  attending  an  unequal  and  ungracious  con- 
test, taxed  but  too  severely  an  organism  accustomed  to  work 
in  an  atmosphere  of  peace.  A  slight  cold  was  followed  by  a 
bronchial  attack,  making  breathing,  after  the  slightest  exertion, 
exceedingly  difficult.  At  length  one  of  the  valves  of  his  heart 
burst.  He  still  worked ;  when  he  became  unable  to  write,  he 
dictated,  sitting  in  his  chair  wrapped  in  blankets.  Writing  to 
his  brother  Henry  a  week  before  his  decease,  he  said:  "I  get 
weaker  continually.  Today  I  have  not  been  strong  enough 
to  be  dressed,  and  have  sat  in  my  armchair  wrapped  in  Arctic 

*The  nature  of  the  opposition  with  which   my  brother  had   to  contend,  is  shown 
when  he  writes,  "Alfred  never  speaks  tome." 


HIS  LAST  A  TTEMPT  A  T  IMPRO  VEMENT.  201 

blankets.  As  there  is  no  possibility  of  getting  at  a  broken 
valve  of  the  heart,  the  cause  of  my  weakness,  I  must  expect 
a  continual  decrease  of  strength  until  the  heart  gives  its  last 
pulsation,  and  the  angelic  messengers  who  wait  on  the  dying 
draw  out  the  spiritual  body  from  this  one.  Then  I  shall  have 
a  sound  heart,  and  get  to  work  in  my  new  sphere  of  life. 
Don't  give  yourself  any  trouble  about  me.  Your  affectionate 
brother,  Isaac."  The  day  before  he  died,  the  physicians'  bul- 
letin read,  "Sir  Isaac  Pitman  was  much  worse  yesterday,  and 
his  end  is  almost  daily  expected.  Yesterday  the  veteran  pho- 
nographer  wrote  for  his  spelling  reform  publication,  The  Speller, 
that  his  life's  work  was  over." 

Then  came  welcome  peace  and  rest,  with  full  assurance 
of  a  continued  existence  where  his  life's  love  of  usefulness 
would  find  corresponding  activities  in  an  atmosphere  of  recip- 
rocal service ;  where  he  would  not  be  denied  fair  play,  and 
where  the  chilling  blight  of  selfishness  and  ingratitude  would 
be  all  unknown.  Unusual  honors  were  paid  the  departed 
veteran,  if  silmultaneous  press  laudations  the  world  over,  wher- 
ever Anglo-Saxon  civilization  prevails,  may  be  so  interpreted. 
His  body  was  taken  to  Woking,  28th  of  January,  1897,  and  cre- 
mated, according  to  his  wish,  attended  by  his  younger  son. 
Simultaneous  commemorative  services  were  held  in  the  vener- 
able Bath  Abbey  Church,  at  the  principal  New  Church  in 
London,  and  at  his  home  New  Church  at  Bath.  A  notable 
event  it  was  for  a  reformer  and  a  "  Dissenter "  to  be  consid- 
ered deserving  a  commemorative  service  in  an  English  Cathe- 
dral. In  due  time  a  mural  tablet  was  placed  by  the  city  on 
the  house  in  the  Royal  Crescent,  where  he  lived  and  died,  to 
help  preserve  the  memory  of  an  inventor,  whose  system  of 
writing  had  been  adapted  to  fourteen  European  and  Oriental 
languages,  and  whose  life's  work,  in  simple  "love  of  use,"  had 
proved  him  a  time  and  labor-saving  benefactor  to  his  race. 


B.  0.  BAKEH 

LAWYtK 
DALLAS 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


A     000  564  899     3 


B.  0. 


